India - the 1%

The top 1% of India’s population owns nearly 60% of its wealth.
The richest 10% of Indians own 80% of the country’s wealth. 
At the other end, the poorer half possess a mere 4.1% of national wealth.

During the period of India’s rapid economic growth, the rich have been the greatest beneficiaries. Between 2000 and 2016, the share of India’s richest 1% increased from 36.8% over 50%. 

Between 1988 and 2011, the incomes of the poorest 10% of Indians rose by $29, or around ₹2,000, at an increase of 1% per year. In the same period, the income of the richest 10% increased by almost ₹40,000, at the rate of 25% per year. 

In India, the upper classes were the main beneficiary of the nation’s surging economic development and poverty rates are also significantly lower among the upper caste Hindus rather than the Hindu other backward classes, the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, and Muslims. One-third of Muslim and Hindu scheduled castes and tribes are in poverty compared to 10% of the upper castes Hindu. Altogether, 28% or around 360 million Indians are living in conditions of severe poverty.

 India ranks 125 out of 159 countries in the Gender Inequality Index. In a range of indicators including mean years of schooling, gross national income per capital and labor force participation rates, Indian women lag significantly behind Indian men. Cumulative effects of entrenched inequality will worsen their deprivations. Inequality is also affecting India’s urban landscape. Recent studies show that class, ethnicity and caste inequalities represent the growing axis of residential segregation in contemporary urban India.

Currently, 3% of the Indian GDP goes towards education and only 1.3% towards health.