Richest 1% in India own 58% of country's wealth: Study
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Davos:
PTI
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`Women Form 60% Of Lowest Paid Group'
In signs of rising income
inequality , India's richest 1% now hold 58% of the country's total
wealth. Worldwide, 8 billionaires alone hold about 50% of global wealth,
a new study showed on Monday . The study , released by rights group
Oxfam ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting attended by
the rich and powerful from across the world here, showed that just 57
billionaires in India now have the same wealth ($216 billion) as that of
the bottom 70% population of the country .
The study said there are 84 billionaires in India, with a collective wealth of $248 billion, led by Mukesh Ambani ($22.7 billion), Dilip Shanghvi ($16.7 billion) and Azim Premji ($15 billion).The total wealth in the country stood at $3.1trillion.
In the report titled `An economy for the 99%', Oxfam said it is time to build a human economy that benefits everyone, not just the privileged few. It said that since 2015, the richest 1% has owned more wealth than the rest of the planet. “Over the next 20 years, 500 people will hand over $2.1 trillion to their heirs -a sum larger than the GDP of India, a country of 1.3 billion people,“ Oxfam said.
Over the last two decades, the richest 10% of the population in China, Indonesia, Laos, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have seen their share of income increase by more than 15%. “Due to a combination of discrimination and working in low-pay sectors, women's wages across Asia are between 70-90% of men's,“ it said.
Referring to the Global Wage Report 2016-17 of Indian Labour Organisation, the study said India suffers from huge gender pay gap and has among the worst levels of gender wage disparity -men earning more than women in similar jobs -with the gap exceeding 30%.
In India, women form 60% of the lowest paid wage labour, but only 15% of the highest wage-earners. It means that in India, women are not only poorly represented in the top bracket of wage-earners, but also experience wide gender pay gap at the bottom.
It also said that more than 40% of the 400 million women who live in rural India are involved in agriculture and related activities. However, as women are not recognised as farmers and do not own land, they have limited access to government schemes and credit, restricting their agricultural productivity .
The study said there are 84 billionaires in India, with a collective wealth of $248 billion, led by Mukesh Ambani ($22.7 billion), Dilip Shanghvi ($16.7 billion) and Azim Premji ($15 billion).The total wealth in the country stood at $3.1trillion.
In the report titled `An economy for the 99%', Oxfam said it is time to build a human economy that benefits everyone, not just the privileged few. It said that since 2015, the richest 1% has owned more wealth than the rest of the planet. “Over the next 20 years, 500 people will hand over $2.1 trillion to their heirs -a sum larger than the GDP of India, a country of 1.3 billion people,“ Oxfam said.
Over the last two decades, the richest 10% of the population in China, Indonesia, Laos, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have seen their share of income increase by more than 15%. “Due to a combination of discrimination and working in low-pay sectors, women's wages across Asia are between 70-90% of men's,“ it said.
Referring to the Global Wage Report 2016-17 of Indian Labour Organisation, the study said India suffers from huge gender pay gap and has among the worst levels of gender wage disparity -men earning more than women in similar jobs -with the gap exceeding 30%.
In India, women form 60% of the lowest paid wage labour, but only 15% of the highest wage-earners. It means that in India, women are not only poorly represented in the top bracket of wage-earners, but also experience wide gender pay gap at the bottom.
It also said that more than 40% of the 400 million women who live in rural India are involved in agriculture and related activities. However, as women are not recognised as farmers and do not own land, they have limited access to government schemes and credit, restricting their agricultural productivity .
Source: Times of India, 17-01-2017
