Oxfam International was formed 26 years ago, and currently works in more than 90 nations to save and protect lives in emergencies, help people rebuild their livelihoods, working for lasting and genuine change, while keeping women’s rights at the heart of their every action.
Today, the organisation released a report which titled the pandemic Corona virus as ‘The Inequality Virus’, which most of us agree is an apt title.
The virus ravaged the entire world as 12 crore people lost their livelihood while the rich became richer.
The report claims that this event has treated all nations of the world equally and the wedge between the rich and the poor has been entrenched deeply, at the same time for every country.
Specifically for India, the millions of poor Indians were forced out of their jobs while the billionaires of the nation increased their wealth by 35%. India ranked sixth in the world after US, China, Germany, Russia, and France.
When the lockdown in India was in the beginning, in April 2020, every hour 1,70,000 people, both women and men, were losing their jobs. And this while, the increase in the wealth of the top 11 billionaires of India during the pandemic is sufficient enough to sustain National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (NREGA) for ten years.
Unsurprisingly, the women and men employed in the informal sectors of the economy were the worst hit. Among these, the individuals, women and men, who migrate to another state to work as labourers were the hardest hit.
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Education of students moved online and technology companies saw exponential growth e.g. BYJU’s and Unacademy. However, not every student had access to a computer and even lesser had access to internet connection. Thus, the gap between those having access to digital tools and those who do not have has widened at an extremely rapid rate.
Not unsurprisingly, healthcare-wise, the spread of the pandemic was most prevalent among the poor communities which often live in crammed areas having to use shared facilities like water access and toilets. Further, the sanitation is also usually very poor.
Women and men too have had their differences stretched far apart. The women as a group saw unemployment from an already-high percent of 15 percent to 18 percent during the pandemic. The individuals who were not shown the door had to suffer pay cuts.
In a bizarre development, domestic violence against women increased by almost 60% over the past 12 months.
Amitabh Behar, CEO of Oxfam India rues that in the beginning the pandemic of COVID-19 was looked at as a great equaliser, but the same has decimated poor people as the “stark inequalities” inherent in the society have become revealed.
Gabriela Bucher, Executive Director of Oxfam International succinctly sums up the Corona virus’ exacerbated divide between the wealthy and the poor as deadly as the instigating virus itself.