Excelsior Correspondent

SRINAGAR, May 19: Senior CPI(M) leader and MLA, Kulgam, M Y Tarigami has expressed anguish over the deepening economic distress, looming extensively on the livelihood earnings of the people in the country especially the marginalized and working-class sections.

In a press statement, Tarigami said this trend has resulted into raging unemployment crisis and stagnating wages. The cascading effects of US-Israel war against Iran on world economy are hugely detrimental escalating the fuel and fertilizer prices, supply chain disruptions and consequent spikes in food prices, thus, casting a shadow on India, as well.
"Inflation has become an even more lethal destroyer of family budgets because of the continuing high degree of joblessness in the country. It is particularly striking and deeply concerning that during the period 2022-25, regular wage and salary earners witnessed only a meagre annual increase of 1.2% in real wages, while casual labourers experienced an even lower increase of merely 0.5%," he added.
Tarigami said such negligible growth in real incomes, especially in the face of rising inflation and increasing costs of essential commodities, reflects the worsening economic hardships confronting the vast majority of working people in the country. For millions of households dependent on wages for survival, stagnant earnings coupled with soaring expenses have significantly eroded their standard of living and weakened their purchasing power capacity, he said.
The persistently low levels of income and the near absence of meaningful wage growth have become an unbearable burden for India's working class, farmers, daily wage earners, and lower-income groups. Ironically, this distress is unfolding at a time when the corporate sector continues to report unprecedented profits and the number of billionaires in the country is steadily increasing.
This growing concentration of wealth has largely been facilitated by extensive concessions extended to large corporate houses through tax reductions, financial incentives, policy relaxations, and substantial debt write-offs under the present dispensation, while ordinary citizens continue to grapple with economic insecurity and deprivation.
At a time when inflation, unemployment, and stagnating wages are severely impacting everyday life, there is an urgent need for policies that prioritize the welfare of working people, strengthen income security, generate meaningful employment opportunities, he added.