Global reports reflecting the socio-economic status of India and exposing some very harsh truths are almost a routine now and the Oxfam report titled 'The Inequality Virus' is no exception. The findings of it will be deeply disturbing for any common man and ahead of the annual budget, it will bring discomfort to those managing the country. The crux of the report can be conveyed in just a line- the rich have become super rich and the fortune of the poor have headed in the opposite direction.

The findings of the report that came on public domain a day earlier and prepared by the non-profit group Oxfam say that said the wealth of India’s billionaires increased by an estimated 35 % during the lockdown, while 84% of households suffered income loss in varying degrees and 1.7 lakh people lost their jobs every hour in April 2020 alone. Figures are always boring but not in this case. As per the calculations based on which the report is framed, from the beginning of March, when the strictest lockdown in the world due to COVID was enforced in the country, India's  top 100 billionaires have had their fortunes inflated by Rs 12.97 trillion which is more than enough to give every one of the 138 million poorest of the people with Rs 94,045! There are more. Only the increased proportion in wealth of these super-rich during the pandemic could sustain the NREGS scheme for 10 years or the Union health ministry for 10 years!! Sector-wise assessment throws further cruel facts. The informal workforce which forms the major proportion of the total working class in the country had to face the worst hit as it made up 75 % of the total 122 million jobs that were wiped away during the pandemic-induced lockdown(s). Several revelations that were made by the alert and responsible constituents of the national media on the hardships of this class that somehow seemed unconvincing to many ‘stakeholders’ have been endorsed by the Oxfam report which says that 40-50 million seasonal migrant workers who are typically engaged in construction activities, factories etc. are being subjected to endless distress. That the ‘Digital India’ vision is still a dream unfulfilled has once more been echoed in the report. The digital divide has actually deepened the pre-existing educational inequalities and while a few handful of private online education providers have experienced exponential growth, only 3% of the poorest 20 % of Indian households had the opportunity of accessing computers and just 9 % had access to the internet. There are similar tales of inequalities in the report, elaboration on them will only cause mental shock.

Covid has a vaccine now, but it’s still an unending search when it comes to bridging the great Indian inequality gap.