The newly released World Inequality report 2022 has revealed that India is now among the most unequal countries in the world. As per the report, the country’s poverty level is rising in an uneven manner. The top 10 percent of the population owns 57 percent of the national income whereas the bottom 50 percent owns almost nothing.
The data showed that there’s more disparity among the top 10 percent as well. Within the top 10 percent, the top 1 percent holds about 22 percent of the national earnings. As for the bottom 50 percent, their income has gone down by 13 percent in the past few years. In addition to this, the report talked about the poor data quality over inequality maintained by the Indian government. According to the World Inequality Lab, it was difficult to come up with a factual report due to the government’s deteriorated data quality in the past three years.
As per the data given by the global inequality report, an average Indian adult earns around Rs. 2,04,200 annually. The data further classifies the population into top and bottom. The top 10 percent of affluent elites earn Rs. 11,66,520 in a year. On the other hand, the bottom 50 percent earns Rs. 53,610 which is a lot less than the elites at the top.
According to the data collected on household wealth, normal household wealth is Rs. 9,83, 010 in India. However, the situation is not the same for every household. The middle class earns a household wealth of Rs. 7,23,930 in a year. It must be noted that this figure is quite lower than the last data. The bottom 50 percent households possess an average wealth of Rs. 66,280 while the top 10 percent hold about 33 percent of total national household wealth. The top 10 percent of households have an average wealth of Rs. 63,53,070 and within this group those on the top 1 percent hold even more wealth. The top 1 percent earns Rs. 3,24,49,360 which is almost 65 percent of the total household wealth of India.
There is disparity not just based on income but based on gender too. The country has a very high gender inequality where the average female laborer’s income lies at 18 percent. This picture is higher than most middle eastern countries with a 15 percent average. But from the view of Asia, it’s still poor as 21 percent is considered as average in the continent.
The inequality report approved by Thomas Piketty, a senior economist from France also took the environment into account. According to the report, an average person in the bottom 50 percent emits 5 times as well as 10 times less emission than the average person in the bottom 50 percent of Europe and the US respectively.