Economic Well-Being
ECONOMIC INEQUALITY
Economic inequality is the unequal distribution of income and opportunity between different groups in society.
For instance, the 20:20 ratio compares how much richer the top 20% of people are, compared to the bottom 20%. Common examples: 50/10 ratio – describes inequality between the middle and the bottom of the income distribution. 90/10 – describes inequality between the top and the bottom. The most commonly used inequality measures are the Gini coefficient (based on the Lorenz curve) and the percentile or share ratios. These measures try to capture the overall dispersion of income; however, they tend to place different levels of importance on the bottom, middle and top end of the distribution. Education, at all levels, enhancing skills, and training policies can be used alongside social assistance programs to help people out of poverty and to reduce inequality.
The pandemic has pushed the global economy into a recession, which means the economy starts shrinking and growth stops. The economic impact of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic in India has been largely disruptive. India's growth in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2020 went down to 3.1% according to the Ministry of Statistics. The Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India said that this drop is mainly due to the coronavirus pandemic effect on the Indian economy. Notably India had also been witnessing a pre-pandemic slowdown, and according to the World Bank, the current pandemic has "magnified pre-existing risks to India's economic outlook".
The current covid-19 pandemic has affected all the areas and field economically, socially culturally, more financial loss in all aspects and all working fields has been observed.
In India, the urban-rural gap in living standards is a major source of inequality accounting for 40% of average inequality and in for much of the cross-country variations in the levels of inequality. This is because rural areas lack not just quantity but also quality of opportunities and are heavily agriculture based with low output per worker.
Furthermore, the intersection between gender and poverty exacerbates the inequality issue. Women are often overrepresented in low-paying jobs that are accompanied by high supply of low-skilled labour. In many countries, men are more likely to own land and control productive assets than women. Women often have limited influence over important household decisions, including how their own personal earned income is spent. Hence, even if women is the bread-earner of the family, her income may not be spent on herself or even in the most beneficial way to the family. Women and men despite doing the same work get different wages so it's a sign of income inequality and exploitation.
The issue of caste divisions which is very unique to India adds another dimension to the issue. Within caste groups too, economic inequality is very high hinting at heterogeneity (variation) within these big caste groups.
Quality education, at all levels, enhancing skills, and training policies can be used alongside social assistance programs to help people out of poverty and to reduce inequality. Public schools should be unified and given access to better quality human resource, technology and government funding. Government should also reevaluate its fiscal policies to tax the rich at more just rates. Furthermore, election campaigns should not be majorly fund by big corporates as this will only lead to biased policies that aim to benefit the rich. Hence, the trade unions in various industries should be given more voice and power in setting both organizational and governmental policies. Finally, any changes in economic policies should also be accompanied by a social and mental revolution that targets gender, caste and educational issues simultaneously.
- Prerana Agrawal
2nd Prize, Eunoia
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