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Others by Vineet John Samuel ! 07 Feb, 2019 Share on :

"

Every year, before the Annual World Economic Forum at Davos, Oxfam International releases its annual inequality
report. Each report looks to capture a different dimension of inequality (like the 2019 report titled “Public good or
Private Wealth?”) but fundamentally revolves around the various forms of inequality that have now become
ubiquitous. It is in light of this that we first look at what inequality means and what its impacts are on our day to day
life.

What is inequality?
The Cambridge dictionary describes inequality as “the unfair situation in society when some people have more
opportunities, etc. than other people”. The United Nations describes it even more simply as “the state of not being
equal, especially in status, rights and opportunities”.
While the term itself is quite vast and has various interpretations, for the purpose of simplicity, the two large
umbrellas under which we can classify inequality would be economic inequality and social inequality. Both these
categories are deeply intertwined and inequality in one often affects the inequality in another. Over the years,
through its course of study, Oxfam has studied inequality as a grave social injustice and has documented the
incidents and scale of this inequality at a global level.

Economic Inequality

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 Perhaps the most quantified and calculated form of inequality is the economic variant. Even here, the most
predominant forms of inequality measured are those of income inequality and wealth inequality. Income inequality
is the inequality in and disparity in the incomes commanded by the top percentile of the population in comparison
to the bottom percentiles, while wealth inequality measures look to do the same but by calculating disparities in
wealth instead of income.

Income
“Income is not just the money received through pay, but all the money received from employment (wages, salaries,
bonuses etc.), investments, such as interest on savings accounts and dividends from shares of stock, savings, state
benefits, pensions (state, personal, company) and rent.”
-The Equality Trust

PRATIMA, A CASUALTY OF INDIA'S GROWING INEQUALITY. READ HER STORY HERE

Wealth
“Wealth refers to the total amount of assets of an individual or household. This may include financial assets, such as
bonds and stocks, property and private pension rights. Wealth inequality, therefore, refers to the unequal
distribution of assets in a group of people”
-The Equality Trust

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 Social Inequality
Social inequality occurs when resources in a given society are distributed unevenly, typically through norms of
allocation, that engender specific patterns along lines of socially defined categories of persons. It is the
differentiation preference of access to social goods in society brought about by power, religion, kinship, prestige,

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 race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, and class.

In India, one of the most distinctive forms of social inequity come within the spheres of gender and caste, where,
people coming from the marginalized sections of these social categories, are directly impacted in terms of their
opportunities, access to essential utilities, and their potential as a whole.

In India, this is what that looks like:

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 OXFAM INDIA TAKES THE FIGHT FOR INEQUALITY TO THE STREETS. READ MORE

Governments must act to fight inequality

Governments must listen to ordinary citizens and take meaningful action to reduce inequality. All governments
must: set concrete, time-bound targets and action plans to reduce inequality as part of their commitments under

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 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10 on inequality. These plans should include action in the following three
areas:

1. Deliver universal free health care, education and other public services that also work for women and girls. Stop
supporting privatization of public services. Provide pensions, child benefits and other social protection for all. Design
all services to ensure they also deliver for women and girls.

2. Free up women's time by easing the millions of unpaid hours they spend every day caring for their families and
homes. Let those who do this essential work have a say in budget decisions and make freeing up women’s time a
key objective of government spending. Invest in public services including water, electricity and childcare that
reduce the time needed to do this unpaid work. Design all public services in a way that works for those with little
time to spare.

3. End the under-taxation of rich individuals and corporations. Tax wealth and capital at fairer levels. Stop the race
to the bottom on personal income and corporate taxes. Eliminate tax avoidance and evasion by corporates and
the super-rich. Agree to a new set of global rules and institutions to fundamentally redesign the tax system to make
it fair, with developing countries having an equal seat at the table.

JOIN THE FIGHT AGAINST INEQUALITY. SMS 'SMASHINEQUALITY' TO 56263.

FAQs About Inequality -

How does inequality affect society?
Inequality affects every member of the society. Economic inequality impacts the GDP per capita. It gives rise to poorer public health
and illiteracy, thus increasing crime rates, fuelling political instability, and eventually destabilising the society. Society members also
become pessimistic and lose faith in the government and each other.

How is inequality measured?

What are the social inequalities in India?

What causes social inequality?

How do you end Inequality?

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