Last week, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) held a thought expression series for the academic year 2021-22. The students in CBSE-affiliated schools were asked to write a short paragraph on the theme, “My Vision for India @100 Years”. For this writer’s son, a Class V student, it was easy to imagine robots performing most of his works. 

But what made my day was his thought of having an equal world.  

Now what does this show? A 10-year-old child also thinks of inequality, perhaps in his own way. Maybe the house should have been bigger or at least equal to that one of his friends stays in or maybe the toys or the gadgets could be different. For want of time, I didn’t ask him what inequality meant to him. But this will certainly be a topic of discussion, on another day.

Many of you might be thinking what was new about it. A street child will always have a sense of inequality from those who are school-going. It does make sense when you realise that while the whole world has been reeling under the pandemic, a bunch of people amassed wealth, albeit disproportionately. Money, which would have been used to feed millions, who were struggling for two square meals a day, or buying oxygen cylinders or concentrators, landed in the hands of a few privileged ones.

An Oxfam report published last week laid bare the stark and uncomfortable reality – the rich became richer and the poor poorer during the last two years of the pandemic. Thanks to the defective policies that the government adopted. Aptly titled, “Inequality kills”, the report published by the UK-based consortium of 21 charitable organisations, which have global presence, points out that 160 million people were rendered poor during the pandemic, while the 10 richest people doubled their wealth since its beginning.

The Indian supplement of the report says that the number of billionaires grew from 102 in 2020 to 142 in 2021. And the share of the bottom 50 per cent in the national wealth was just 6 per cent! One can imagine how skewed this balance is in favour of the rich.

The report also quotes the Forbes Billionaires report published in October 2021. It shows that the cumulative wealth of 100 richest people in India increased by USD 775 billion in a year. This happened at a time when 84 per cent of the households had a dip in their income. In fact, one-fifth of the increase in the wealth of the top 100 can be attributed to the increase in the wealth of just one individual. The person is none other than Gautam Adani.

Now the question is how did one man or 100 people acquire so much of wealth when our supreme leader was pleading before people to contribute towards a special fund that was created to handle this unprecedented exigency.

Well, the answer lies in the faulty taxation policies. India has a progressive taxation system, which means the tax rate is higher at higher slabs of income. Ideally, this should have tackled the situation. However, businessmen and the rich, who can afford to have well-equipped tax managers, can easily find a way out for evading taxes. The Pandora papers is a case in point.

The papers have named many renowned people. More than Rs. 20,000 crore worth of undisclosed assets have been found. These assets were parked in offshore multi-layered Trusts for estate planning. Incidentally, there is nothing illegal about setting-up such a Trust as per the provisions of the Indian Trust Act! Imagine, after a long-drawn battle, these billionaires getting exonerated of all charges that have been levelled against them.

To make matters worse, the government had abolished wealth tax a few years ago. In other words, tax now is being paid only on income. The report says that had these 100 rich people were taxed at just 1 per cent of their wealth, the country could have managed its entire vaccination programme. And in case, the government imposes a tax of 4 per cent, then, the money can take care of the expenses incurred by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for not one but two years. It can also take care of the mid-meal programme for 17 years and of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan for 6 years.

And if we talk about the tax rates applicable for the salaried middle class, they hardly are left with much income to spend. In fact, the government relied heavily on goods and service tax (GST) for collecting revenue during the pandemic. 

While GST has led to a huge loss for the small businessmen and traders, it has also affected the poor and the middle class. Everything from flour to pulses to vegetable oil became expensive making it unaffordable for many. How can we call this policy progressive or for the poor?

If we talk of welfare schemes, then we all know that the government has been reducing fund allocation to almost all the sectors, be it education or health for the last many years. Despite the pandemic, the health budget of the country remained dismal. In fact, on an average, middle class citizens spent Rs. 4,00,000 a day for hospitalisation in private hospitals! Should this not send shock waves to the government. Is this what it means to sab ka saath, sab ka vikas?

Many may say that the government had introduced its flagship health insurance for the marginalised. To set the facts right, the report says that only 8 per cent of people knew about this scheme and only 1 per cent had a health card!

But who says the pandemic did not move the government at all? It introduced an extension of social security schemes like employee state insurance to those working in the informal sector. However, only 24 per cent of the people could get themselves registered on the e-Shram portal. The major hurdle being the requirement of Aadhar card and/or ignorance about the existence of such a scheme.

In the metro cities, where the migrant labourers could hardly have any access to food, as they all lost their jobs, only one-third of the respondents were able to buy ration through the public distribution system.

What does these facts speak about? Is it not cheating the diligent tax payer, who expects the government to spend his/her hard-earned money for social welfare? Is it not injustice to allow a group of people to flourish at the cost of the common man? These questions may sound very uncomfortable but should be pondered upon religiously if people in power really believe in their dharma and karma. But then who cares?

In fact, a Right to Information (RTI) application revealed that the Prime Minister’s office has not released the promised fund of Rs. 100 crore from the PM Cares Fund to the health ministry, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the department of bio-technology for vaccine development. The money was promised to be given during May 2020. 

In fact, the first RTI application was rejected on the plea that the PM Cares Fund does not come under the purview of the RTI. The RTI activist had to file multiple RTI applications to different departments to get a response to the query. This shows how responsible and committed our leadership is towards the common man.

As far as achieving equality in India@100 years, it only seems to be a distant dream. Such topics are good only to trigger the thought process of school children. Not to translate their vision into reality!

(The writer, a company secretary, can be reached at jassi.rai@gmail.com)