COVID-19 and the great Indian divide

At a time when the privileged lot was busy showing off its culinary capabilities on Twitter and getting innovative with Zoom countless men women and children walked for hundreds of miles without food and water for survivalMigrants wait for transport to take them to their hometowns in Mumbai weeks after the nationwide lockdown was imposed to check the spread of COVID19If the coronavirus pandemic shook the nation to its core it also made the social and economic faultlines wider and longer The poor faced untold hardship as the rich amassed wealth A health crisis and a harsh lockdown apart COVID19 also triggered a pandemic of inequalitiesIn its latest report on inequality nonprofit group Oxfam has highlighted the uneven impact of the virus in India and elsewhere Besides grim statistics it has suggested ways to lessen the effect The report will be launched during the World Economic Forum in Davos todayIn the absence of trains and buses lakhs of migrant families hit national highways on foot to reach their native places in the initial days of the COVIDinduced lockdown File picRise of the richThe global billionairesrsquo wealth rose 19 per cent with the worldrsquos 500 richest people gaining 809 billion Jeff Bezos saw his wealth zoom to 1855 billion and Elon Muskrsquos net worth was 1792 billion as of January 18 2021 The wealth of Indian tycoons grew 35 per cent during the lockdownPlunge of the poorAmid the COVID outbreak 100 million people were pushed to poverty In India 8437 of the households suffered a loss in income in April 2020 The Atma Nirbhar package doled out by the Centre to lessen peoplersquos suffering comes to just a little more than R2 lakh crore or 1 per cent of the GDPNo classes for the massesAt the peak of the pandemic the virus hit about 32 crore students Of these 84 percent live in rural areas and 70 percent go to government schools About 40 percent teachers fear a third of the students might not return to school Only 4 percent rural households had a computerThe way forwardgtgt Government should involve civil society organisations and think tanks to monitor inequalitygtgt It should have an annual plan of action to reduce social disparitygtgt Commit to regulating private healthcare providersgtgt Raise or maintain public education expendituregtgt Revise minimum wagesgtgt Impose an additional 2 per cent surcharge for taxpayers earning more than R50 lakhgtgt Cut GST on essential goods for the benefit of the poorBeyond reachSocial distancing was near impossible with 32 per cent and 30 per cent of households living in one room and two room houses respectively in urban India About 66 per cent of SC households didnrsquot know about free testing under the PMJAY schemeCrushed livelihoodsLabour participation fell from 43 per cent to 35 per cent from Jan to April 2020 Eight in ten households earned less during lockdown Of 122 million who lost jobs 75 per cent were in the informal sector There were 2582 cases of human rights violations of migrant workers in April 20207237Rise in Mukesh Ambanirsquos wealth during pandemic2537Health budget visavis GDP suggested by Oxfam17LNo of people who lost jobs every hour in April 2020Source The Inequality Virus mdash Davos India Supplement 2021