No country that has a poverty fee of 28.1%, as India did in 2022 in accordance to the World Bank, can make a “justifiable” claim to being one in all the most equal societies in the world, the Congress stated in an announcement on Sunday (July 6, 2025). It urged the authorities to replace the official poverty measure to higher mirror the country’s financial actuality.
As per a report by the World Bank launched in April, and highlighted by a Union authorities press launch on July 5, India’s consumption-based Gini coefficient of inequality fell to 25.5 in 2022-23 from 28.8 in 2011-12. According to the Centre, this makes India “the fourth most equal country in the world”, behind the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, and Belarus.
Wage disparity
On Sunday (July 6, 2025), nevertheless, the Congress identified different facets of the World Bank’s report, which the authorities press launch didn’t point out — excessive wage disparity in India, and a doable motive for the fall in consumption inequality.
“Wage disparity in India is high, with the median earnings of the top 10% being 13 times higher than the bottom 10% in 2023-24,” the Congress stated in its press assertion, citing the identical World Bank report from April.
Consumption survey adjustments
The World Bank report added that “sampling and data limitations suggest that consumption inequality may be underestimated”, a indisputable fact that the Congress highlighted.
The World Bank additional stated that adjustments in the questionnaire design, survey implementation, and sampling in the 2022-23 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey are enhancements, but additionally “present challenges for making comparisons over time”.
“It is worth recalling that these changes were made after the Government rejected the previous iteration of the survey (conducted in 2017-18) after it showed falling consumption in rural areas,” the Congress stated. “As a lower middle-income country, the appropriate rate to measure poverty in India is that of $3.65/day.”
Using this measure, the World Bank says India’s poverty fee stood at 28.1% in 2022.
‘Update poverty line’
“No country that has a poverty rate of 28.1% can make a justifiable claim to being one of the most equal societies in the world,” the Congress assertion stated. “The report is therefore rather clear: poverty remains concerningly high, and so does inequality.”
Among the Congress’ a number of ideas to tackle this situation was for the authorities to replace its official poverty line, one thing that had not been tried since the Rangarajan Committee submitted its report in 2014.
“Sharpening inequality is now firmly embedded in the nature of our economic growth and its trajectory fueled by the Modi Govt’s policies and the widening gap between the privileged few and the dispossessed many can no longer be denied,” the Congress stated.
