A person belonging to the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, or Other Backward Class has almost the same spending power as his or her general category counterpart in Assam, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Saturday (April 19, 2025).
Citing the latest Household Consumption Expenditure data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, he attributed the “lowest consumption inequality” to the casteless society envisaged by Srimanta Sankaradeva, a neo-Vaishnavite saint-reformer of the 15th-16th century.
“Thanks to his teachings, Assam has the lowest consumption inequality today. In other words, a general category person in the State has the same purchasing power as an SC/ST/OBC person,” he said.
According to the Ministry’s data, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, and Andhra Pradesh follow Assam in that order as the more equal States. Below Kerala, among the most unequal States are Gujarat, Punjab, and Rajasthan.
The data showed that people belonging to the SC and OBC categories saw the largest reduction in consumption inequality in rural and urban areas over the last decade. However, the average general category spending was at least 10% more monthly than the other classes.
There was no consumption gap between the general category people and the STs in Assam. The spending gap for the SCs was 1.01 times, while the OBCs had 0.01 times more spending power than the general category people.
The data revealed that a general category person in Kerala spent 1.58 times more than an SC person, 1.42 times more than an ST person, and 1.24 times more than an OBC person.
The figures also pointed to Gujarat being the most unequal for the OBCs, Haryana for SCs, and Punjab for the STs.
