Open Forum
New Delhi, 17 March
2021
Rising Ultra Rich
NO JOBS, SOCIAL CHAOS LIKELY
By Dhurjati Mukherjee
India added one
billionaire every 10 days in 2020 amid the pandemic. This was made possible by
rising stock valuation, which increased the number of worldwide billionaires by
412 to 3228. There are now 209 Indian origin billionaires of which 177 are Indian
residents. The total list, which continues to be topped by Mukesh Ambani and
Gautam Adani, has 50 fresh additions. In fact, Asia has, for the first time, in
perhaps hundreds of years, more billionaires than the rest of the world
combined, according to a recent survey.
The rise in wealth of
the rich has been on the back of rise in value of financial assets –
shareholdings in the companies they own. The Nasdaq was up 42 per cent last
year followed by China’s Shenzhen (40 per cent), Sensex (23.2 per cent) and
Japan’s Nikkei (22.9 per cent). China also added 256 new billionaires to become
the first country in the world to top 1000 known dollar billionaires with 1056,
more than the combined total of the next three countries of the US, India and
Germany.
As far as India is
concerned, the development once again confirms the fact that the rich have not
been affected, in the slightest way, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it
is the poor and the economically weaker sections who have suffered immensely,
from April onwards till at least December last year. This includes small
traders, migrant workers and all those working in the unorganised sector as
also various categories of hawkers. Even a large section of those in the formal
sector were affected at least for 7-8 months as their units remained partly
closed.
The situation has
been improving since this year though demand in most sectors is yet to pick up.
The lack of demand is testimony to the fact that a large segment of the
population – say around 70 per cent, if not more – have lost their purchasing
power, which are the after effects of the pandemic. The recovery that we see
and read in the media is concentrated to around 7-8 of the population who
comprise the upper sections of the middle sections.
Delving into the
problem, one finds that concentration of wealth in a few hands is nothing new
but the amount of money in the hands of the ultra rich – even the rich – has
been phenomenal in the last few years. This has resulted in big business
exerting a great influence on political leaders and being near the corridors of
power. Obviously, the political leadership, it is no secret, is known to lean
towards these and help their business to the extent possible.
In doing so, the
planning strategy of the country is so geared to help the upper echelons of
society, thereby neglecting the poor and the impoverished. One aspect of this
is the introduction of new agricultural laws which has evoked massive protests
among farmers, both in India and abroad. The other distressing scenario is with
labour laws which are definitely not intended to upgrade conditions of
grass-root workers, who have virtually no social security.
If one argued that in
an emerging economy like India, this has to be accepted, the question arises
how pathetic is the scenario regarding the food consumption of the poor. A
recent national survey found that over 98 per cent of India’s adults eat
inadequate levels of fruits and vegetables, thereby increasing the risk for
non-communicable diseases. It found that this category of people aged between
18 and 69 years eat less than the recommended 400 gm fruit or vegetables a day.
The lack of an adequate and balanced diet has led to an
increase in illness and premature deaths from non-communicable diseases such as
cardiovascular disorders, diabetes or cancers in the country over the past two
decades and accounted for 6.1 million or about 65 per cent of India’s deaths in
2019. In fact, as the survey revealed that the Indian diet continued to be
dominated by carbohydrates, roots and tubers.
According to Dr.
Prashant Mathur, head of the Indian Council of Medical Research National Centre
for Disease Informatics & Research, Bangalore and the study’s principal
investigator, the lack of affordability as also lack of awareness and
understanding of diseases may have been the reason to consume more vegetables
and fruits. Meanwhile, FAO recently stated in a report that 690 million people
were hungry in 2019 but the number was expected to rise sharply during and post
COVID-19, hinting at the large population of India.
This brings us to the
formulation that all talk of India’s emergence as a global power is made
keeping in view the rich and the middle class which are destined to emerge
richer and stronger in the coming years. But what would happen if the
neo-capitalist strategy of appeasing and helping the upper echelons of society
are continuously followed?
The most challenging
questions that emerge are obviously related to finding employment or self-employment
for the growing youth force, specially the educated ones. Recently over 5
million youths stormed Twitter with the hash tag ‘Modi job do’ (Modi give us jobs). Avinash Kumar of the Centre for
Labour Studies of JNU University stated that out of over 100 million regular
employment opportunities in 2018, the share of public employment had fallen
below 20 per cent. Government jobs are decreasing year after year; yet they
remain popular among the youth because of security. Studies have shown that job
growth declined steadily between 2011 and 2018 compared to the previous seven
years and the situation in the next two years is more pitiable.
As has been pointed
out again and again, the induction of technology and mechanisation has steadily
reduced the scope of employment. Due to reduce costs and achieve economies of
scale, this strategy is being followed. While in Western countries, utilisation
of labour is not a big problem, it is not the same here in India, where
unemployment and underemployment has been increasing at a rapid pace. Moreover,
the government has no clear-cut policy of encouraging labour intensive
industries, on the one hand, while allowing private sector to reduce labour
costs at its own free will, on the other.
Thus in the coming
years, there is virtually no possibility of unemployment being addressed though
the government promised 2 crore jobs a year without any concrete plan on how to
fulfil it. This would obviously increase disparity and a large population would
be deprived in all possible ways while the rich would continue to amass wealth.
Another aspect of this deprivation may lead to social unrest and violence as
the rich in this country is not at all benevolent.
What actually will
happen if this trend continues is indeed difficult to apprehend. But social
analysts are clear in pointing out that if this carries on, the present
policies of the government may not resolve the impending socio-economic crisis,
which is staring the country in the face.---INFA
(Copyright, India News
& Feature Alliance)
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