The State of Inequality in India Report was released on May 18 by Dr Bibek Debroy, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM).
- The report has been written by the Institute for Competitiveness.
- Consisting of two parts – Economic Facets and Socio-Economic Manifestations – the report looks at five key areas that influence the nature and experience of inequality. These are: income distribution and labour market dynamics, health, education and household characteristics.
Income data
- Extrapolation of the income data from PLFS 2019-20 has shown that a monthly salary of Rs 25,000 is already amongst the top 10% of total incomes earned, pointing towards some levels of income disparity.
- The share of the top 1% accounts for 6-7% of the total incomes earned, while the top 10% accounts for one-third of all incomes earned.
- In 2019-20, among different employment categories, the highest percentage was of self-employed workers (45.78%), followed by regular salaried workers (33.5%) and casual workers (20.71%).
- The share of self-employed workers also happens to be the highest in the lowest income categories.
- The country’s unemployment rate is 4.8% (2019-20), and the worker population ratio is 46.8%.
- The country’s unemployment rate is 4.8% (2019-20), and the worker population ratio is 46.8%.
Health infrastructure
- In the area of health infrastructure, from 1,72,608 total health centres in India in 2005, total health centres in 2020 stand at 1,85,505.
- States and Union Territories like Rajasthan, Gujrat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Chandigarh have significantly increased health centres (comprising of Sub-Centres, Primary Health Centres, and Community Health Centres) between 2005 and 2020.
Education
- By 2019-20, 95% of schools have functional toilet facilities on the school premises (95.9% functional boy’s toilets and 96.9% functional girl’s toilets).
- 80.16% of schools have functional electricity connections with States and Union Territories like Goa, Tamil Nadu, Chandigarh, Delhi, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep and Puducherry have achieved universal (100%) coverage of functional electricity connections.
- The Gross Enrolment Ratio has also increased between 2018-19 and 2019-20 at the primary, upper primary, secondary and higher secondary.
Household conditions
- In terms of improvement in household conditions, emphasis on providing access to sanitation and safe drinking water has meant leading a dignified life for most households.
- According to NFHS-5 (2019-21), 97% of households have electricity access, 70% have improved access to sanitation, and 96% have access to safe drinking water.
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