Direction (60–64) :Read the following passage and answer the given questions Even as the government has been regularly reporting an increasing level of Covid- 19 recoveries, the countrydoesn’tseem to have fared well in terms of fighting inequality among its people going into the pandemic.That’sbecause of low spending on public healthcare, poor access health services and labour rights etc, according to[1]–an international confederation of charitable organisations. India, which is ranked[2]out of 158 countries in the Commitment to Reducing Inequality (CRI) Index by[1], spent just 4 per cent of its budget on health going into the pandemic—fourth lowest in the world, the index said. In fact, just 26 of
22the 158 countries surveyed for thisyear’sindex were spending the recommended 15 per cent of their budgets on health to fight Covid. “Nigeria,Bahrain and India, which is currently experiencing theworld’sfastest- growing outbreak of COVID-19, were among theworld’sworst-performing countries in tackling inequality going into thepandemic,”the index report said. It also claimed that despite an already disastrous track record onworkers’rights, several state governments in India have used Covid-19 as a pretext to increase daily working hours from 8 to 12 hours a day and suspend minimum pay legislation, devastating the livelihoods of millions of poor workers now battling hunger. The third edition of the CRI Index, which ranks 158 governments across the world on their commitment to reducing inequality, also highlights that in India, just half of its population have access to even the most essential health services, and more than 70 per cent of health spending is being met by people themselves, one of the highest levels in the world. The CRI also tracksgovernment’sspending on public services, which looks at actions taken by governments in the areas of education, health and social protection. At the bottom of the public services pillar ranking, South Asian countries in particular are doing far too little to fight inequality. India, Nepal and Sri Lanka are all in the bottom 10, and Bangladesh is 16th from the bottom of [1]’sCRI 2020 list.
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