India Inequality Report 2021

• The report ‘Inequality Report 2021: India’s Unequal Healthcare Story’ has been released by Oxfam India.
• This report talks about how India’s focus on supporting private healthcare while low spending on public healthcare systems has led to inequalities in accessing healthcare, especially during the ongoing pandemic.
• Sharp inequalities exist across different caste, religious, class and gender categories on various health indicators.

Key findings:

• India’s low spending on public healthcare systems and focus on supporting private healthcare has led to serious inequalities in access to healthcare, especially during the Covid 19 pandemic.
• The general category is better off than the SCs and STs, Hindus are better off than Muslims, the rich are better off than the poor, men are better off than women, and the urban population is b etter off than the rural population.
• Also the urban population fared better than the rural population which has been measured on various health indicators.
• Over 50 per cent of people from SC and ST communities faced difficulties in accessing non-Covid medical facilities, compared to 18.2 per cent of people in the ‘general’ category.

• The average medical expenditure per hospitalisation case has tripled between 2004 and 2017, making it difficult for poorer and rural households,
• One rupee in every Rs 6 spent on hospitalisation came through borrowing; while urban households depended on savings, rural households depended on loans.
• The out-of-pocket health expenditure of 64.2 percent in India is higher than the world average of 18.2 percent.
• India’s low spending on public healthcare has left the poor and marginalized with two difficult options: suboptimal and weak public healthcare or expensive private healthcare.
• The vaccination drive against Covid-19 ignores the country’s digital divide — entering the pandemic, only 15 percent of rural households had an internet connection.

• Smartphone users in rural India were almost half of those in urban areas.
• More than 60 percent of women across 12 states had never used the internet,
• The literacy rate for women in the general category is 18.6 per cent higher than SC women, and 27.9 percent higher than ST women,
• Female literacy rate is highest amongst Sikhs and Christians at over 80 per cent, followed by Hindus at 68.3 per cent, and Muslims at 64.3 per cent,
• Despite improvement in child immunisation, the rate of immunisation of girls continues to be below that of the male child
• Children residing in urban areas have better access to immunization than those in rural areas. There is also disparity in child immunization between the income groups in the country.
• Rural India houses 70 percent of the population, while it has 40 percent of hospital beds.

Oxfam:

• Oxfam is a confederation of independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty.
• Oxfam was founded in the year 1942 and its headquarter is located in Nairobi, Kenya.
• Oxfam has been in India since 1951.
• Oxfam India is a registered Non-profit under Section 8 of the Indian Companies Act, 2013 and have a Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) license.
• In 2008, Oxfam India became an independent affiliate and an Indian NGO.