Current Affairs Date: 03 July 2022

⇒ The State of Inequality in India Report was released by Dr Bibek Debroy, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) on 18 May 2022.

• • The report compiles information on inequities across sectors of health, education, household characteristics and the labour market.

Written by:

The report has been written by the Institute for Competitiveness and presents a holistic analysis of the depth and nature of inequality in India.

About Report:

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.

» The report is based on data derived from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), National Family and Health Survey (NFHS) and UDISE+.

» Each chapter is dedicated to explaining the current state of affairs, areas of concern, successes and failures in terms of infrastructural capacity and finally, the effect on inequality.

Key findings:

• • For the first time, the report has been focused on the distribution of income to understand the capital flow.
  • 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 country’s unemployment rate is 4.8% (2019-20), and the worker population ratio is 46.8%.
  • In the area of health infrastructure, there has been a considerable improvement in increasing the infrastructural capacity with a targeted focus on rural areas.
  • From 1,72,608 total health centres in India in 2005, total health centres in 2020 stand at 1,85,505.
  • The results of NFHS-5 (2019-21) have shown that 70% of women received antenatal check-ups in the first trimester in 2019-21.
  • Education and household conditions have improved enormously due to targeted efforts through several social protection schemes. This has happened especially in the area of water availability and sanitation that have increased the standard of living.
  • By 2019-20, 95% of schools have functional toilet facilities on the school premises.
  • 80.16% of schools have functional electricity connections. 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.
  • 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.