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Oxfam warns inequality rise in India amid COVID-19 pandemic; calls impact on health, livelihood and access to education 'uneven'

Updated : January 25, 2021 05:39 PM IST

The coronavirus pandemic has the potential to lead to the biggest increase in inequality in almost a century.

The coronavirus pandemic has the potential to lead to the biggest increase in inequality in almost a century. Hundreds of millions of people have been forced into poverty while most of the richest – individuals and corporations – are the least affected, prompting many to refer to the health crisis as the “pandemic of inequality”, said Oxfam in its 'The Inequality Virus' report, published as global leaders tune in for the World Economic Forum's virtual 'Davos Dialogue' meeting.

As per the report, India has been grappling with growing inequality along with class, caste and gender which has been exacerbated by the pandemic.

“The impact has been unequal among different communities. Identities as caste, class, gender, religion and region played a role in defining the impact felt by each group of people. The impact on health, livelihood and access to education has been uneven, hitting India’s women, poor and the marginalized groups the most,” the report said in its India supplement.

Here’s how the pandemic is giving rise to wealth, education, health and livelihood inequality (Compiled by Oxfam):

Wealth

According to Oxfam, the global billionaires’ wealth rose by 19 percent during this time. The world’s 500 richest people gained $809 billion this year, a 14 percent increase since January 2020 while 100 million people were pushed into poverty.

Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man saw a rise to $185.5 billion and the wealth of Elon Musk increased to $179.2 billion as of January 18, 2021, the report said.

In India, the wealth of billionaires increased by 35 percent during the lockdown. Mukesh Ambani, emerged as the fourth richest man in the world and the richest in India and Asia with a rise of 72 percent in his wealth during the pandemic (till December 2020), it said.

Eighty-four percent of the households suffered a loss in income in April 2020 alone. 170,000 people lost their jobs every hour in the month of April 2020.

Despite such widespread impact, the direct fiscal impact of the ‘Atma Nirbhar package’ announced by the government of India for COVID-19 recovery comes to a little more than Rs 2 lakh crore or a mere 1 percent of GDP, according to Oxfam.

Education

As per the report, the number of students affected by the closure of the educational institutions stood at over 32 crores till the end of October. Of those, 84 percent reside in rural areas and 70 percent attend government schools.

Oxfam India’s survey reports that close to 40 percent of teachers in government schools fear that the prolonged school closure might lead to a third of the students not returning once schools reopen.

“The likelihood of dropout increases with the decreasing wealth quintile,” it said.

Education has also been impacted due to the digital divide, the report said, while only 4 percent of rural households had a computer and less than 15 percent of rural households had an internet connection.

Health

Areas with the highest deprivation have experienced greater COVID-19 positivity rates, according to Oxfam.

"Social distancing and sanitation prescriptions are a luxury when 32 percent and 30 percent of the households live in one room and two-room houses respectively in urban India," the report said.

Non-COVID-19 related health care was disrupted.

A 64 percent spike was noticed in mortality and a 25 percent was seen among patients needing life-saving chronic care. The poor and SC patients faced the greatest disruptions to their care, the report added.

Livelihood

According to Oxfam, the labour force participation rate fell to an all-time low from 43 percent to 35 percent from January to April 2020 and unemployment rose sharply since March 2020.

"Eight in ten households have seen a decline in income during the lockdown. Out of a total of 122 million who lost their jobs, 75 percent which accounts for 92 million jobs were lost in the informal sector," the report said.

The National Human Rights Commission recorded over 2,582 cases of human rights violation of migrants workers in the month of April 2020. Seventeen million women lost their job in April 2020. Therefore, unemployment for women rose by 15 percent- that can result in a loss to India’s GDP of about 8 percent or $218 billion, it added.

Published : January 25, 2021 10:24 AM IST

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