Show commitment to equity in the Budget
The Government needs to stop India’s avalanching slide into a grossly divided society, made worse by the pandemic
On January 17, 2022, Oxfam International presented its annual global “Inequality Report”. Titled Inequality Kills, the report calculated and presented the quantum growth in wealth of a minuscule few, and the simultaneous impoverishment of millions of working people. During the novel coronavirus pandemic, the report reveals, more than half the world’s new poor are from India; 84% Indian households have suffered a loss of income, with 4.6 crore people falling into extreme poverty. In this period, the richest 142 people have more than doubled their wealth to more than ₹53 lakh-crore. This is clearly happening by design, and can only be corrected if our policymakers reverse their framework of paying lip service to the poor while making policies that support the rich. One of the most important places to show commitment to equity, is the Union Budget; and inequality should perhaps be discussed threadbare in India before, and after every Union and State Budget. [ . . . ]
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