Economic growth not equitable: Vice President

New Delhi, Sep 14 (UNI) Vice President Hamid Ansari today said country's overall economic growth has not yet translated itself into fair distribution of the development with wealth accumulation at the top being more impressive than poverty reduction at the bottom.

''We have a situation where the richest 10 per cent of the population account for slightly less than 30 per cent of the share of expenditure and the poorest 10 per cent of the population account for less than five per cent,'' Mr Ansari said.

Thus, he said overall economic growth of the country has not yet translated itself into fair distribution of the fruits of development. The challenge, he said, is to accept that wealth accumulation and poverty reduction are two sides of the same coin and need to be addressed together.

Mr Ansari said that the debate so far has been mainly concentrated on income poverty and inequality.

''It is held that economic development leads to poverty reduction and eventually to human development. While the broad causality of this is true, the extent of impact is dependent on the income distribution pattern of a country,'' Mr Ansari said.

If, as in India, the richest segment of the population captures a larger share of the economic development, the extent of poverty reduction would be lower for the same quantum of economic development, he added.

The Vice President added that then income inequalities, what is particularly worrisome is the stark human development inequalities that adversely effect growth.

UNI