While the citizens of rich India go out for dinners at expensive hotels, shop at world-renowned brands like Gucci at prestigious malls. Outside those malls stand the citizens of poor India. Their problems are wildly different—unknown entities who are heard of only in year-end statistics.
The rich and poor of India live in coexisting bubbles, always conscious of each other’s existence. The gap between them ever-widening as the rich become richer and the poor poorer. According to one study, the wealth accumulated by 16 wealthy people in India is equal to 600 million people. It sounds a lot less shocking, knowing 60% of the Indian population lives in poverty. While the privileged patronise nuclear power, ultra-modern tech. Work as CEOs of significant ventures and brands. The poor have to scramble for basic necessities such as electricity, clean drinking water. Even education seems more and more like a luxury to the poor.
While 70 new millionaires are produced every day, two people are pushed into poverty every second because of healthcare costs. As a result of overpopulation, free healthcare lacks in delivering what’s promised. The pandemic raging through the nation has only increased the inequality, severely harming the poor and middle-class population. While the rich have almost regained the lost wealth, rebuilding the economic stability for the lower middle classes and below could take years.
However, many organisations help to provide temporary relief. The lack of job opportunities and rising unemployment rates paint a very dark picture indeed. As India strives to become a global superpower, we must also reflect on our nation’s significant population.
There is no easy way to help bridge this gap except fair and equal chances for all-right to proper education, healthcare and sanitation. Until then, we can remember that it will take a minimum wage earner, a total of 941 years, to make the same amount of money as a high executive for any brand in India would make in one year.
