A coconut seller and a day laborer reflect on life in astoundingly unequal India
Panchavarnam and her husband earn about $2.50 a day selling coconuts from a rented cart on the streets of Madurai, a city in Southern India. That's barely enough to support their family of four. And when the pandemic struck, their income plummeted. They couldn't sell their wares during lockdowns. What's more, storms struck in November, destroying the thatched roof of the family hut. They had to borrow heavily to pay for repairs.
But it was a very good year for wealthy Indians. A soaring stock market propelled the combined wealth of members of the 2021 Forbes list of India's 100 Richest to a record $775 billion, after adding $257 billion — a 50% rise — in the past 12 months.
The World Inequality report 2022 issued this month, which tracks global trends in inequality, marks this dichotomy. India is one of the most unequal countries in the world, with rising poverty and yet an affluent elite, the report states.
It's almost as if there are two countries in India: a very small, very rich country (the, lead author of the report and co-director of the . "For a long time, it has been said that the richer the rich part of the country, the better for the rest," he says.
