Why Does Equality Matter?

Equality is a powerful moral and political ideal that has shaped human society for centuries. It is implicit in the teachings of most major faiths, which hold that all human beings share a common origin or spiritual worth. As a political ideal, equality carries the idea that every human being has equal worth regardless of colour, gender, race or nationality, and deserves equal consideration and respect simply because of this shared humanity. This same idea of a common humanity underlies modern notions like universal human rights and "crimes against humanity" — the sense that some acts are wrong against anyone, anywhere, because every human being counts equally.

Through the modern period, the equality of all human beings has been used again and again as a rallying cry against states and social institutions that protected inequalities of rank, wealth, status or privilege. Eighteenth-century French revolutionaries fought the landed feudal aristocracy and the monarchy under the slogan "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." Anti-colonial movements across Asia and Africa raised the same demand for equality against colonial rule. It continues to be raised today by groups who feel marginalised, such as women or Dalits. As a result, equality is now a widely accepted ideal, written into the constitutions and laws of most countries, including our own.

Yet it is inequality, not equality, that is most visible around us — in the world and within our own society. Slums exist beside luxury housing; schools with world-class facilities exist beside schools that lack even drinking water or toilets; there is waste of food in some places and starvation in others. The gap between what the law promises and what we actually see is real and glaring, and understanding it starts with looking honestly at the evidence.

Fact sheet on global inequalities (Source: Human Development Report, 2005, UNDP)

1. The richest 50 individuals in the world have a combined income greater than that of the poorest 40 crore people.
2. The poorest 40 per cent of the world's population receive only 5 per cent of global income, while the richest 10 per cent control 54 per cent of global income.
3. The first world of the advanced industrial countries, with 25 per cent of the world's population, owns 86 per cent of the world's industry and consumes 80 per cent of the world's energy.
4. On a per-capita basis, a resident of an advanced industrial country consumes at least three times as much water, ten times as much energy, thirteen times as much iron and steel, and fourteen times as much paper as someone living in a developing country like India or China.
5. The risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes is 1 in 18 in Nigeria, compared with 1 in 8,700 in Canada.
6. The industrial countries of the first world account for nearly two-thirds of global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels, and for three-quarters of emissions of sulphur and nitrogen oxide, the gases that cause acid rain — even as polluting industry is increasingly shifted from developed to less developed countries.

Inequality is just as visible closer home. The 2011 Census recorded how ordinary household amenities differ sharply between rural and urban India: