Podcast: Amitabh Behar on How Coronavirus Aggravates Inequality in India

Covid-19 has wrought so much fresh destruction but it also has the potential to exacerbate pre-existing inequalities in Indian society

India is in the middle of an unprecedented 21-day countrywide lockdown as it tries to contain the growing threat of Coronavirus. This virus has wrought so much fresh destruction but it also has the potential to exacerbate pre-existing inequalities in Indian society.

This week on the show, Milan Vaishnav (Director of the South Asia programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) speaks with Amitabh Behar, the Chief Executive Officer of Oxfam India. For seven decades, Oxfam India has been providing humanitarian and development assistance across India in an effort to address gaps in service delivery, gender equity, injustice, and livelihoods.

Amitabh and Milan discuss India’s response to the crisis, the precarious lives of India’s urban poor and migrant labor, the pandemic’s particular effects on women, and the connectionbetween entrenched social norms and violence against women.