Increased national wealth did not result in equitable distribution of its benefits. It has created only…

Question

Increased national wealth did not result in equitable distribution of its benefits. It has created only some "enclaves of modernity and prosperity for a small minority at the cost of the majority." Justify.

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

The statement is largely justified: growth since 1991 multiplied national wealth but concentrated its gains in a few people and places while the majority bore displacement and precarious work. The World Inequality Lab estimates the top 1% held 22.6% of income and about 40% of wealth in 2022-23.

**Introduction**

Drèze and Sen warned that India risked becoming "islands of California in a sea of sub-Saharan Africa". The statement is largely justified: growth since 1991 multiplied national wealth, but its gains pooled in a few people, sectors and places.

**How Growth Built Enclaves of Prosperity**

SKETCH: iceberg | Enclaves Above, Majority Below
visible: Glass towers, Unicorn start-ups, Metro corridors
hidden: Informal work, Farm distress, Displacement, Health debt

1. **Concentrated wealth**: The World Inequality Lab (2024) estimates that the top 1% held 22.6% of national income and about 40% of wealth in 2022-23, higher than under the British Raj.
2. **Growth without good jobs**: Agriculture employs about 46% of workers (PLFS 2023-24) but yields under a fifth of value added.
3. **Spatial islands**: Gurugram's gated townships and Mumbai's towers beside Dharavi wall prosperity off from the cities around them.

**Why the Majority Bears the Cost**

1. **Displacement**: Mines and dams uproot tribal families; in *Orissa Mining Corporation v. MoEF* (2013) Niyamgiri's Dongria Kondh gram sabhas rejected bauxite mining.
2. **Precarious labour**: Over 30 crore unorganised workers are on e-Shram, and the 2020 lockdown exodus showed migrants had no safety net.
3. **Failing Rawls's test**: The **difference principle** accepts inequality only if it lifts the least advantaged, which trickle-down growth has not done.
4. **Constitutional promise**: Article 39(c) bars concentration of wealth to the common detriment, and Ambedkar warned in 1949 of "a life of contradictions".

**Conclusion**

The statement largely holds, though NITI Aayog estimates 24.82 crore people left multidimensional poverty between 2013-14 and 2022-23. Growth guided by Gandhi's Talisman and **compassion** for the weaker sections must reach the majority, not just its enclaves.

Increased national wealth did not result in equitable distribution of its benefits. It has created only some "enclaves of modernity and prosperity for a small minority at the cost of the majority." Justify.

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