Oxfam International was formed 26 years ago, and currentlyworks in more than 90 nations to save and protect lives in emergencies, helppeople rebuild their livelihoods, working for lasting and genuine change, whilekeeping women’s rights at the heart of their every action.
Today, the organisation released a report which titled thepandemic Corona virus as ‘The Inequality Virus’, which most of us agree is anapt title.
The virus ravaged the entire world as 12 crore people losttheir livelihood while the rich became richer.
The report claims that this event has treated all nations ofthe world equally and the wedge between the rich and the poor has been entrencheddeeply, at the same time for every country.
Specifically for India, the millions of poor Indians wereforced out of their jobs while the billionaires of the nation increased theirwealth 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 April2020, every hour 1,70,000 people, both women and men, were losing their jobs. Andthis while, the increase in the wealth of the top 11 billionaires of Indiaduring the pandemic is sufficient enough to sustain National Rural EmploymentGuarantee Act, 2005 (NREGA) for ten years.
Unsurprisingly, the women and men employed in the informalsectors of the economy were the worst hit. Among these, the individuals, womenand men, who migrate to another state to work as labourers were the hardesthit.
Education of students moved online and technology companiessaw exponential growth e.g. BYJU’s and Unacademy. However, not every studenthad 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 nothave has widened at an extremely rapid rate.
Not unsurprisingly, healthcare-wise, the spread of thepandemic was most prevalent among the poor communities which often live incrammed 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 farapart. The women as a group saw unemployment from an already-high percent of 15percent to 18 percent during the pandemic. The individuals who were not shown thedoor had to suffer pay cuts.
In a bizarre development, domestic violence against womenincreased by almost 60% over the past 12 months.
Amitabh Behar, CEO of Oxfam India rues that in the beginningthe pandemic of COVID-19 was looked at as a great equaliser, but the same hasdecimated poor people as the “stark inequalities” inherent in the society havebecome revealed.
Gabriela Bucher, Executive Director of Oxfam International succinctlysums up the Corona virus’ exacerbated divide between the wealthy and the pooras deadly as the instigating virus itself.