India: Inequality and Discrimination Introduction
Reducing inequalities and ensuring no one is left behind are integral to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals .Though there are number of efforts are undertaken by different national governments toward reducing inequality in some dimensions, inequality still persists. Increasing economic inequality has become a cause of concern for the developing countries like India, where economic growth and income inequality go hand in hand. An analysis by Oxfam suggests that top 10% of the Indian population holds 77% of the total national wealth. 73% of the wealth generated in 2017 went to the richest 1%, while 67 million Indians who comprise the poorest half of the population saw only a 1% increase in their wealth . In another estimate it is evident that India’s per capita gross domestic product (GDP) increased five times between 2000 and 2019; to $2014 in 2019 from $443 in 2000.This doesn’t mean thatincome of the entire population has increased. The top one per cent in India earned 21 per cent of total country’s income in 2019. This was 11 per cent in 1990. The top 10 per cent earned 56 per cent of the country’s total income in 2019; the bottom 10 per cent earned only 3.5 percent .

Intense discrimination and inequalities associated with the caste system in India. Many marginalized groups do have lesser access to employment, education and other spheres in comparison to other groups. Though, discrimination, inequalityand exclusion are ordinarily used interchangeably, in development interventions one results the other. Disparate impact occurs whenindividuals are treated equally according to a given set of rules and procedures but when the latter are constructed in ways that favor members of one group over another . The Constitution of the India promises equality to all its citizens through various provisions elucidated in the chapters on Fundamental Rights (justiciable) and on Directive Principles of State Policies (non-justiciable) delineate the state’s obligation to provide equal opportunities to all its citizens in social, political and economic spheres. Yet, the presence of stark inequalities continues to exist in India. Persistent poverty and deprivation overlap with particular castes, communities and differ between genders. Poverty and deprivations are also without shadow of doubt the result of deep rooted class structure formed over centuries .
COVID-19 has deepened existing inequalities and discrimination, hitting the poorest and most vulnerable communities the hardest. It has put a spotlight on economic inequalities and fragile social safety nets that leave vulnerable communities to bear the brunt of the crisis.  At the same time, social, political and economic inequalities have amplified the impacts of the pandemic. India’s economy experienced the largest annual contraction (7.3%; NSO, MOSPI 2021) in the post-Independence period due to the health and economic fallouts of the Covid-19 crisis. Yet, the stock market has recovered from an initial dip and is up by 75% from a year ago.The total number of Indian billionaires rose to 140 last years from 102 and their combined wealth nearly doubledto $596 billion. India has the third largest number of billionaires in the world after the US and China. Yet, the number of poor inIndia is estimated to have increased by 75 million due to Covid-19, accounting for nearly 60% of the global increase in poverty.

The proposition
The proposal is to generate debates at the wider level on the issues of inequality and discrimination. Oxfam India has completed three editions of India Inequality report. While the first report was on the state of inequality in jobs, second year report focused on the burden of care work on women and its impact on their (women’s) participation in the workforce, third edition of the report focused on the state of health inequality in India. These reports have generated lots of discourse on the inequality and the findings of the report was also used in raising questions in different civil society platforms. These reportswere also used by the parliamentarians to raise questions on the performance of the government to reduce inequality in India. This year in addition to the inequality, Oxfam India proposes to come out with discrimination index. There have been very littleand sporadic efforts have been undertaken by different experts to quantify the state of discrimination. Oxfam India will formulate the index to deepen the discourse around the discrimination.  Thus, Oxfam India proposes to work on:
• Building knowledgeto deepen understanding and creating a public narrative on Inequality
• Developing an index on discrimination for building a narrative on Discrimination
• Creating and sharing content and information to build on-ground work for the community groups on various local issues