What the article is about:
- The article talks about increasing strain at middle and lower ends of income distribution as suggested by data from various sources.
Relevance:
- Paper 1: Essay
- GS1: Poverty and developmental issues.
- GS3: Employment
Analysis:
- In 2021-22, the Indian economy rebounded sharply 1.5% above pre- pandemic level.
- This year RBI expects it to grow at 7.2% making India one of the fastest growing economies in the world during this period.
- However, beyond the headline numbers, there are indicators that shows the continuing distress in parts of the economy.
Indicators depicting gruesome picture:
- In 2019-20, the year prior to the pandemic, 7.88 crore individuals worked under the MNREGA scheme, in 2020-21, the first year of pandemic, this number rose to 11.19 crore workers.
- Another indicator of economic distress at the lower end of the income distribution scale comes from the national crime record bureau – There has been a rise in suicides by daily wage earners and in 2021, daily wage earners accounted for a fourth if suicides in the country.
- In 2021-22 over 2.3 crore life insurance policies were surrendered way ahead of their maturity by policy holders- it was more than thrice than the number of policies surrendered the previous year.
- As per data from SIAM, in 2021-22, sales of two-wheelers were lower than their 2019-20 levels by almost a quarter.
- As per CRISIL, sales of car priced below Rs 10 lakh grew by a mere 7% in 2021-22, while those priced above Rs 10 lakh grew by 38%.
Conclusion :
- The policymakers must be mindful of the highly uneven nature of the recovery, and take measures to address the distress of the most vulnerable.
