IndiaMain News

1.7 lakh people lost jobs every hour in April, India’s richest 1% now own 4 times wealth of India’s 70% population: Report

58c0e40ee226450e87e6ec696b0378f7 18
A migrant worker carries his son as they walk along a road after nationwide lockdown [IMAGE – Reuters]

India’s richest 1% now hold more than four-times the wealth held by 953 million people who make up for the bottom 70 per cent of the country’s population, while the total wealth of all Indian billionaire is more than the full-year budget, according to a study ‘Time to Care’ by the rights group Oxfam at 50th WEF meet.

According to the report, Indian billionaires increased their wealth by 35% during the lockdown to ₹ 3 trillion, ranking India after U.S., China, Germany, Russia and France.

The report said that the number of billionaires since the global financial crisis has nearly doubled with a new billionaire created every two days.

Mukesh Ambani, who emerged as the richest man in India and Asia, earned ₹90 crore an hour during the pandemic when around 24% of the people in the country were earning under ₹ 3,000 a month during the lockdown. The increase in his wealth alone could keep 40 crore informal workers out of poverty for at least five months, said the report.

Amitabh Behar, Oxfam India CEO, said the gap between rich and poor cannot be resolved without deliberate inequality-busting policies, and too few governments are committed to these.

Besides, direct public investments in the care economy of 2 per cent of GDP would potentially create 11 million new jobs and make up for the 11 million jobs lost in 2018, the report said.

Oxfam said governments are massively under-taxing the wealthiest individuals and corporations and failing to collect revenues that could help lift the responsibility of care from women and tackle poverty and inequality.

If India’s top 11 billionaires were “taxed at just one per cent on the increase in wealth during the pandemic” it could increase allocation to the Jan Aushadhi scheme – which makes quality medicines available at affordable prices – by 140 times.

“The Modi administration has been following a progressive taxation policy and higher welfare spending to try and tackle income inequality. But Governments must prioritise care as being as important as all other sectors in order to build more human economies that work for everyone, not just a fortunate few,” Behar said.

Related Articles

Back to top button