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We are here with another blog on hranker.com.
In today’s blog we will learn about the inequality report 2021 which was released by Oxfam on 20th July,2021. We will discuss in detail about the report and important facts stated in it.
Let’s start by knowing some details about the background of the report.
Inequality Report 2021
The report stated the disastrous condition of Indian public healthcare system during the second wave of COVID-19.
Oxfam also shares the findings of a survey carried out towards the end of 2020. 768 respondents were from Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Kerala. They were either suffering from COVID-19 or recovered.
Findings of the Seven-state survey
– Respondents in low-income groups faced five times more discrimination in the community due to being Covid positive than people in high income brackets.
– Access to non-Covid medical facilities was difficult for over 50 percent of SCs and STs as compared to 18.2 percent in the general category.
– 33.9 percent female respondents experienced anxiety, anger and sleep deprivation during the lockdown as compared to 18.2 percent males.
Key Highlights of the report
Expenditure on Public Healthcare System
- The states which spend on reducing healthcare inequalities were faced with less number of Covid cases when compared to other states.
- It was stated that states such as Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana have been reducing inequalities. Efforts were made especially to reduce healthcare inequality between the general category and SC and ST populations. While the states with higher GDP expenditure on health such as Bihar, Assam and Goa have higher recovery rates.
Rural India
- Urban population fared better than the rural population on various health indicators.
- Rural India with 70 percent of population had only 40 percent of hospital beds.
Digital Divide
- The CoWin portal was opened for the 18-44 age group on May 1. The registration for vaccination was made necessary thereby excluding those on the other side of the digital divide.
- Country’s digital divide has been ignored during the vaccination process. It caused inequality between income groups as well as general and SC, ST categories.
Women’s Literacy
- The report stated improvement in women’s literacy over the years. SC and ST women lag by 18.6% than those of general category by 27.9%.
- Though the female literacy rate among Muslims is lower than all religions, there has been reduction in inequality over time.
Kerala – The Successful State
- Kerala was marked as the success story in the handling of pandemic.
- The state invested in infrastructure to create a multi-layered health system, expanded primary healthcare coverage to achieve success to a range of preventive and curative services. The number of medical facilities, hospital beds and doctors were expanded.
Child Immunisation
- Improvement in immunisation is seen. Yet the rate of immunisation of girls continues to be below that of male children.
- Access to immunisation is better in urban areas than the rural areas. There is also disparity in child immunisation between the income groups in the country.
Other important points
- 12.6% more children are stunted in SC households as compared to the general category.
- The number of hospital beds per 10,000 population between 2010 and 2020 reduced from 9 to 5.
- The government’s insurance system covers less than a third of the country’s households.
- In the Union Budget for 2021-22, a year after a pandemic, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) was given a total of Rs 76,901 crore, down 9.8% from Rs 85,250 crore in the Revised Estimates for 2020-21.
With this we come to the end of this blog. We discussed in detail the important points stated in the Inequality Report 2021.
Stay tuned for more such blogs.
