New Delhi: The coronavirus induced lockdown has made India’s billionaires 35 per cent richer and lakhs of workers lost their livelihood, an Oxfam report said.
The report tabled at the World Economic Forum at Switzerland’s Davos said the coronavirus pandemic has worsened existing income inequalities between India’s super-rich and crores of unskilled workers.
The Oxfam report entitled ‘The Inequality Virus’ said the wealth of the country’s billionaires increased by an estimated 35 per cent during the lockdown. Nearly 84 per cent of households suffered varying degrees of income loss. The report said nearly 1.7 lakh people lost their jobs every hour in April 2020 alone.
The report further said income has increased for India’s top 100 billionaires since March 2020 during lockdown.
In the months prior and after, lakhs of migrant workers were left without jobs, money, food or shelter after the world’s strictest lockdown was enforced with little warning.
Tragic visuals of men, women and children walking hundreds of kilometres made headlines even as scores died on the streets.
Comments are closed.