New income gap report advocates for universal income. Will govt warm up to the idea?
India Today
Amid inflation, a report on income inequality has recommended raising minimum income and introducing a universal basic income to help the marginalised community in India. Will the Centre warm up to this idea?
With the poor getting marginalised further, the gap between the top-most and the bottom-most incomes widening, and the income share held by the top 1% is increasing, the idea of raising minimum income and introducing a universal basic income seems to be inching towards the government's drawing board.
This follows recommendations made in a report on inequality in India commissioned and released by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM). The recommendations are aimed at reducing the income gap and bringing about an equal distribution of earnings in the labour market. The report has underlined the need for urgent measures to correct the "skewed nature" of income distribution in the country.
The report titled "The State of Inequality in India" and prepared by the Institute for Competitiveness, was released on Wednesday.
Extrapolating Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) income data from 2019-20, the report says 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% account for one-third of all incomes earned.
In 2019-20, among different employment categories, the highest percentage of employees 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%.
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The report recommends fresh measures to correct income inequality. It implores the government to implement six must-dos. Here are the highlights:
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