Camouflaging inequality

The claim by government about India’s stature as the fourth most equal country in the world based on the World Bank’s Spring 2025 Poverty and Equity Brief is deceptive and camouflages the stark reality of poverty and inequality that plague India despite its high economic growth. At the same time, other international data shows significant disparities in areas like gender inequality, and economic participation and human development.

- Santosh Kumar Mohapatra

The inequality represented by Gini index ranges from 0 to 100, where zero represents perfect equality and 100 indicates extreme inequality. It is reported that India’s consumption Gini index which was 28.8 in 2011-12, has declined steadily to 25.5 in 2022-23, placing it in the “moderately low inequality” category ahead of China (35.7), and the US (41.8).

But it's crucial to understand that these measures are not directly comparable across countries. What is camouflaged is that the Gini index of our ‘‘consumption” is compared to the Gini index of “income” of other countries. This is nothing but incomparable. The World Bank’s Poverty and Inequality Platform (PIP) provides Gini indices for 104 countries based on consumption surveys and 73 countries based on income surveys.