Inequality in India is real and has been rising sharply for the last three decades as an unfortunate legacy of the lopsided policy choices made by successive governments, Oxfam India said as it published a new report.
The report The Widening Gaps: India Inequality Report 2018 provides a picture of the current state of inequality in India, identifies the reasons behind this situation, and presents policy solutions. The report busts the myth that India is a low-inequality country. On all parameters of income, consumption and wealth, India ranks among the most unequal countries in the world. The report states that inequality is evitable in times of accelerated growth. Countries in Latin America and in East Asia have seen low and even declining inequality. India is one of the few outliers where inequality is already high and continues to rise sharply. It is not accidental. Specific policy choices which favoured capital rather than labour, and favoured skilled rather than unskilled labour, are part of the structure of the growth trajectory in India.