Dear Readers,
There is a major debate going on about the pay gap between ethnic groups and different genders. BBC itself has lost court actions over the gap between males and females and ethnic females and white females. Ethnicity and gender are not in the hands of the people concerned. Various aspects of life, including education, health, income, quality of life, all depends to a large extent on where, when, in what circumstances a person was born and raised.
My column this week is inspired from a report I read over the weekend, that highlighted the shocking wage gap between multiple communities. According to the report, “UK GDP could be boosted by £24 billion a year by simply bridging the ethnicity pay gap, and those organisations with the most ethnically and culturally diverse executive teams are 33 per cent more likely to outperform their peers on profitability.”
However, data derived by the UK Office of National Statistics revealed that around 77 per cent of White people were employed last year, as compared to 65 per cent of people from all other ethnic groups combined. If you think this is all, what surprised me was the actual wage gap between these ethnic groups. Comparison between Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi wages of the previous three years – 2017, 2018, and 2019, revealed people in the Indian community make nearly 25 to 30 per cent more than Bangladeshis. Chinese earn higher per hour income.
These differences between groups makes one wonder, why certain groups are doing so well, compared to others? The Chinese were never on top according to my experience. I remember reading a travel book by Paul Theroux on East Africa. He had described in great detail the Chinese shops selling food and other things in various cities in the area. Now, this was in the late 50s, early 60s. The Chinese back then were not only poor, but highly discriminated against.
But since 1979, China has spectaculary developed economically and otherwise. At one point, Chinese in Singapore, Hong Kong and to a certain extent in the Malaysia lead far better lives than those on the Mainland. Things are different today.
The Chinese government has been able to take drastic steps at various levels to compete with the West, even America and in some areas they have reached a higher level. Also the education, professional qualifications, confidence and competence of the Chinese people invariably reflect on their work placement or earning packages.
I vividly recollect some 50 odd years ago, when Indians landed in London or other parts of the UK from East Africa, India, or anywhere else, they were blatantly looked down by the wider society who remembered the few hundred odd years of British colonisation in India and felt entitled to their sense of ascendancy. What they had so conveniently forgotten was the whole reason behind the British going to India in the 17th century was its riches and prosperity. It is no secret that colonial era made Britain richer, and India poorer. 'The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire' is a fantastic book written by William Daryrymple that describes in great detail the ripping off of India by the English.
The Indians who came directly from India and migrated to the UK, especially up until the British Immigration Act 1962, were much more educated and qualified than those from Pakistan and Bangladesh. What is interesting, is that almost all of the Bangladeshis before 1971, came from the Sylhet region which was then located in East Pakistan, and now in Bangladesh. 65 per cent or more were employed in so-called Indian restaurants. Similarly, Pakistanis who came after 1947, came predominantly from Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir and were employed in the wool textile, metal, and engineering industries as unskilled labourers.
Indians came from far better economic and professional backgrounds. The Tatas, Birlas, Scindia Shipping, Indian banks like the Bank of Baroda, and the State Bank of India were becoming more multinational. They already had presence in London. The biggest numbers were however in the NHS. Some 28,000 doctors out of 100,000 were from India. The figures of course have gone up now and will go up more as PM Boris Johnson wants more nurses, doctors and professionals in the NHS.
Poor Indian tax payers have been subsidising the UK, US and other countries by spending huge amounts of money in educating doctors, engineers, IIT specialists, pharmacists back home. Not only them, several large multinational companies in IT and other fields boast Indians at topmost positions world over, most of whom are born and raised in India.
In 1967, when Singapore was made to leave the Federation of Malaysia, it was a poor country and in a way, multi-racial but divided Island State. Lee Kuan Yew, then the prime minister, was able to transform his country under a strict but democratic rule. Singapore today is almost on the top level of transparencyw, productivity, tolerance, wages, etc. What a small nation state can do is not possible or easy for larger countries.
But even in the UK, with the best intentions of the government, they can make some changes in the law or the framework of administration. I believe that the prime responsibility of elevating our communities to a better level of education, skills, and thereby earnings is primarily our responsibility.
Indians have been very fortunate. They are the pioneers, real role models, motivators of future generations who have come out to be more ambitious, more educated, and definitely more skilled. In the early 20th century in East Africa, once Indians began settling down, the Patels, Lohanas, Aga Khanis, Bohras, Oshawas, and other communities opened boarding schools, libraries and other facilities. Today, after 100 odd years, the third or the fourth generations have benefited from it.
In the dialogue between wage gaps, I will agree the minority communities are at a gross disadvantage as compared to their fairer competitions. What I will also say though, is that despite the discrimination, I have seen the Indian community rise in every single generation. This reminds me of a song that motivated me early in life:
“Tadbeer se bigdi hui
Taqdeer banale taqdeer banale
Apne pe bharosa hai
Toh yeh daav lagale
Lagale daav lagale”
It means, change your bad luck to good fortune, have faith in yourself. I have observed ethnicity and gender pay gap for years, and hope it is satisfactorily resolved as soon as possible, but society in general has a role to play too. As a Sansari Sadhu said to me once, “The printed word has a power ; the power to transform a person, the power to transform a society.” Thoughts motivate, some more than others.
