News:Oxfam, an international non-profit organisation has released the study ‘Time to Care’ ahead of the 50th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Facts:
Report on Global inequality:
- The world’s 2,153 billionaires have more wealth than 4.6 billion people.
- The 22 richest men have more wealth than all the women in Africa.
- The world’s richest 1% have more than twice as much wealth as 6.9 billion people.
- The value of unpaid care work by women aged 15 and over is $10.8 trillion annually.
- The number of billionaires has doubled over the past decade.
- The women and girls are among those who benefit least from economic system.It would take a female domestic worker 22,277 years to earn what a top CEO of a tech company makes in one year,
Report on India:
- India’s richest 1% hold more than four-times the wealth held by the bottom 70 per cent of the country’s population
- The total wealth of 63 Indian billionaires was higher than last year’s Union Budget of India 2018-2019.
Recommendations on reducing inequality:
- Government should build national care systems, provide free public services and increase taxes on the wealthy.
- It also suggests countries should try to limit the influence of corporations and the super rich.
- It said that if the government gets the richest 1% to pay just 0.5% extra tax on their wealth over the next 10 years would equal the investment needed to create 117 million jobs in sectors such as elderly and childcare, education and health.
