Poverty and Pandemic

 I am thankful to Ramdas for telling me I was cryptic in my comments. He explained  "You process your thoughts and make a statement! Unaware of  your thought process, I have to ask you to explain!" He is very right, hopefully not always! I wonder if it means I am an ASS? (Autistic Symptoms Sometimes!) Hopefully a mild variety?  

I was reminded of this trait in me as I read an article in 'The Hindu'  news paper. 'Oxfam report says over 16 crore more people forced into poverty in two years of pandemic'.  

As a solution Oxfam suggests the top 10 richest people  be taxed 99% of the increase in their fortune in the last two years and fund it to provide universal health care, social protection, reduce gender-based violence, stop climate change  and so on . 

The article claims women collectively lost  $800 billion in earnings during pandemic, a big set back in gender parity. It also faults the white people for not dying as much as the blacks, browns in Europe and  the Americas.  A very myopic view as they have not mentioned the yellow people in Asia.   

There is more but the ASS in me gave up! 

I do not like it if others, specially white people, come to teach us charity. Oxfam has lost its credibility for me.  Founded in Britain in 1942 to help women and children who were starving in occupied Greece during World War II, did nothing for the starving Indians in Bengal around the same time. No doubt, there would be excuses for this lapse. 

It makes more sense that the 99% percent tax levied on the 10  richest men of the world be distributed among the world's poor directly! Their needs are immediate. I don’t believe trickle down hypothesis works. In a while the moola gets back to where it came from. Let the poor have fun at least for a while. 

There are  many horror stories during the Pandemic and we all know the worst and the best of humanity surfaces at such times. Oxfam says it is seeking to change of economic systems, In fact, humans have tried every conceivable system and seem to have settled on the present system for now! I wonder how will it really change? It is very evident in many ways that pandemic gave a good time to the rich! It seems that they are spending their gains, and that is good news. You cannot prevent the rich from trying to get richer. 

 Today Oxfam has spread  around the world including India. To call themselves 'Oxfam India' feels very bovine. Their aim is to create a just and sustainable world! A good ideal, very utopian. 

They plan to work in 'niche' areas. Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, and Informal Sector Workers in the next five years. While it is good to know, I have a feeling that poverty is treated like an opportunity. I do hope it is not  political. 

 I wished they were active on population control issues as well. The world, including Oxfam,  had almost 80 years to do something tangible, allowed the population to treble.  Indians have seen abject poverty of the early years. They have been on a roller-coaster ride all along. Invariably the vote bank policy has come in the way of population control. So did the need (or greed) for cheap labour, demographic dividend, as it is called!

 As I watch these workers every day, I am impressed by their hard work, trying to make the best out of the situation. Are these people with their innate dignity counted as poor? Most of the migrants would like to go home.  I really don't know how this could be achieved. At least give their children a better home.  I feel I am like these little kids of migrant labour in the video. Trying to keep my hope and innocence.

The lady works with the men, keeps an eye on the kids.
She cooks for them. There is an innate dignity in all of them. 

Video courtesy Uma, neighbors sister 

About Oxfam:

The name “Oxfam” comes from the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, founded in Britain in 1942. The group campaigned for food supplies to be sent through an allied naval blockade to starving women and children in enemy-occupied Greece during the Second World War.

"The 'Inequality Kills' briefing shows how deeply unequal our economic system is and how it fuels not only inequality but poverty as well. We urge the Government of India to commit to an economic system which creates a more equal and sustainable nation," Amitabh Behar, CEO, Oxfam India souaid in a statement.

Oxfam India is leading NGO of people and organisations working hand in hand to fight inequality in India. Supporting civil society organisations in India over the past 60 years, In 2008 Oxfam registered as an Independent organisation.......And we won’t stop until everyone in India can live a life of dignity free from discrimination. Our vision is a just and discrimination-free India. Oxfam India will always be there in times of crisis and injustice to fight the inequalities and discrimination affecting the lives of millions of Indians. 

Over the next five years, we will help many more people from socially and economically excluded groups (Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, and Informal Sector Workers), and especially women in exercising their right to live a life of dignity and free from discrimination.