Standing in AIIMS. Thursday morning. Visiting a doctor for my father’s treatment.
It’s a cold day and AIIMS is a crowded place.
Anywhere I look, can only see the already shivering men, women and children. Most of whom are already covered in multi layer of clothing and still struggling to quietly jostle for possible spots to stand, that are warmed by the rays of morning sun.
And clearly, the possibility of that is hard, as the concrete jungle of buildings block the sun’s rays and let only a few of them to peep through. And those people who managed to stand at the places where sunrays are direct, are feeling content.
This makes me wonder- Are such people feeling content that they could manage a sunny spot to get warm in a cold day?
OR
Are they feeling superior and smarter that they have managed it and others could not?
And while I am rediscovering these traits of human behaviour, I decided to divert my mind from it and opened a current affairs site online. And came across a disturbing news article. Which is in total sync with how some of us secure a place in the sun in a cold weather, and never bother to share with those who are left cold and dry to suffer.
Here it goes…
According to a survey by the international rights group Oxfam..
It states – – – off the total wealth “generated” in year 2017 in India, the top 1 percent of the richest took a 73 percent share from it.
Oxfam also categorically found that roughly half our total population was able to manage a cut of only 1 percent out of that remaining 27 percent of wealth in 2017.
Let me put it in more simpler way for the reader.
Out of every 100 rupees generated in 2017–
— the richest 1 percent of our population took 73 rupees out of it.
— 49 percent of population that includes not so rich/ upper-class/ middle class/ lower middle class folks, like a lot of you and me, had to struggle and compete with each other to get our individual share from every 26 RUPEES generated out of those 100. Now can u remember everytime when you and I go and expect a raise in our companies and at our jobs, we are mostly turned down stating that budget is low / economy is bad / market is down / money isn’t coming and pls wait till some more time. Just think about it.
— And WORST,
Were the people from lower class including labourers, poor farmers and others living around or below the poverty line, who comprise roughly 50 percent of our entire population. These are the majority of unfortunate souls who could get only the last 1 RUPEE , from every 100 rupees generated in 2017.
Can I pls emphasise on this again…
Around 50 percent (roughly 67 crore people) of our entire population had to share 1 single rupee out of every 100 rupees generated in 2017 amongst themselves.
Means… Those working hard, growing food for the country, building infrastructure, working in factories are left with extremely limited resources and options, and are left struggling to…
— fund their child’s education
— buy medicines for family members and
— manage two meals a day.
No wonder the women and children in this segment suffer the most because they are placed at the absolute bottom of the population pile.
Some highly educated call it — “income and gender Inequality”. I prefer to cal it “prosperity for a few and misery for the rest”.
— Last year’s survey had showed that India’s richest 1 per cent held a huge 58 per cent of the country’s total wealth higher than the global average of about 50 per cent.
— how the economy and the policies enable wealthy elite to accumulate vast wealth even as hundreds of millions of people struggle to survive on poverty pay.
Oxfam also adds – – –
“2017 saw an unprecedented increase in the number of billionaires, at a rate of one every two days. Billionaire wealth has risen by an average of 13 per cent a year since 2010 — six times faster than the wages of ordinary workers, which have risen by a yearly average of just 2 per cent,” it said.
Oxfam India CEO Nisha Agrawal says –” it is alarming that the benefits of economic growth in India continue to concentrate in fewer hands”
It adds..
“The billionaire boom is not a sign of a thriving economy but a symptom of a failing economic system. The growing divide undermines democracy and promotes corruption and cronyism,” she said.
” It asked the government to promote inclusive growth by encouraging labour-intensive sectors that will create more jobs; investing in agriculture; and effectively implementing the social protection schemes that exist”
” In India, it will take 941 years for a minimum wage worker in rural India to earn what the top paid executive at a leading Indian garment firm earns in a year, the study found”
I request the reader to pls go through the facts and figures I have presented here which can be verified online. Now after all this data, facts and figures, the kind of system we have at present comes into question as a system..
— Where there have been many examples of crony Capitalism favouring a few rich and taking the earning opportunities from the all others
— where the rich and powerful still prefer to tuck away their wealth in various tax havens abroad to escape the taxes here, instead of investing all of it back in the country of origin to remove Inequality and create employment opportunities.
— Where as per statistics over 35 percent women in our country go to bed hungry every night.
— where more than one third of the world’s malnourished children live in India. Among these, half of them under 3 are underweight. It is a direct result of lack of divided equal income for most that robs them of their buying power for basic things like wholesome food, and general health.
— Where there is increasing number of children and women’s being trafficked day and India now has a title of human trafficking hub of south east Asia. And most of these kids come from poor families where there is a lack of basic food, education, well being and growth infrastructure for children.
— where purposefully peoples attention is being consumed and diverted into engineered events like – – padmavat and criticizing other parties and people. Doesn’t it make sense that when most news channels or newspapers or magazines are occupied with a movie being opposed violently by a “sena”, this engineered issue suddenly feels so much more important. And the effect is that it eclipses other such major issues like scary Malnutrition figures, and child deaths, human trafficking numbers, gender Inequality, income Inequality, basic health and food safety for all.
Can we pause for a moment and question how over decades of policy making by the “ablest” of politicians and beaurocrats have never been able to solve the problem of income Inequality, but has rather their policies have increased this gap over a period of decades.
The purpose here is to make the reader aware. So that next time when someone from the govt or media or else, repaint their ever pretty canvas for us, we know the truth.
Thanks for your time.