India's health inequality made worse by reduced health budget: Oxfam report

Oxfam India's inequality report draws attention to the county's unequal healthcare story hit further by Covid-19

When it comes to healthcare, people in general category are better off than Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) households; Hindus are better off than Muslims; the rich do better than the poor; men are better off than women; and the urban population fares better than the rural.

These are the findings of Oxfam India’s “Inequality Report 2021: India’s Unequal Healthcare Story”. The report says that the absence of universal health coverage has starkly and disproportionately affected marginalised groups at a time when socio-economic inequalities in India are growing because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

While 65.7 per cent of