The challenge of inequity

Mr. Chandra Bhushan
giving 5th Wangari Maathai
Memorial Lecture at Micro
Business College, Ambo,
Ethiopia. 

A major note of caution is the inequity that grows unabated. It is a world where a minority of 20 percent consumes a hefty 80 percent of the resources. The alarming fact is that in 2016, for the first time in human history 1 percent will own wealth far more than that of the remaining 99 percent! Disturbing truth is that such inequality anywhere would be akin/ally to bad governance, political instability, violence and conflict.  

And the picture becomes bleaker when we understand that clean cooking fuels are inaccessible for 2 billion people; electricity has not reached over 1.5 billion people; clean water is a dream for over 1 billion; 800 million of the earth’s population are chronically undernourished; diarrhea kills 2 million children each year; and diseases that are well preventable take lives of about 30,000 every day!