Last updated 15 May 2021
‘People are literally dying on the streets or in car parks or in their homes. There is no one I think in India who doesn’t know of friends or family or colleagues who have not had COVID.’
Amitabh Behar, CEO of Oxfam India
Oxfam is on the Ground
In the face of the health crisis in India, we are stepping up our efforts in 16 states* to meet both immediate and long-term needs. We are:
- procuring oxygen tanks and concentrators, beds, digital thermometers, and other medical equipment to help government hospitals
- distributing personal protective equipment (PPE) and safety kits to health workers
- reaching out with food to the stranded workers and to the most marginalised and vulnerable communities
- making direct cash transfers to the most marginalised households
- working with the government to ensure a substantial increase in the health budget to strengthen the Indian public health system
*Assam, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Telangana
PPE kits, safety and hygiene kits delivered to a COVID-19 hospital in Patna, Bihar state on 1st May 2021. (Photo: Oxfam India)
Oxfam India have reached 180 families of marginal farmers and daily wage workers in Jorhat and Morigaon in Assam. We have provided dry ration and safety & hygiene kits. (Photo: Oxfam India)
Oxfam staff Nikhil Wagh and Parmeshwar Patil carrying an oxygen concentrator into the Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital. (Photo: Oxfam India)
Workers take bags of PPE kits to be transported to hospitals out of a storage facility in East Delhi. (Photo: Vaibhav Raghunandan/Oxfam India)
Our immediate priority is to supply hospitals and health workers with medical equipment and PPE so they can continue treating those who are sick. But to avoid a worse humanitarian disaster it is vital we stop the spread and so we are also preparing handwashing stations and awareness campaigns to help people stay safe.
Amitabh Behar, CEO of Oxfam India
Deadly Second Wave of COVID Grips India
(Photo: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)
India is facing a deadly second wave of COVID-19 and has been recording over 300,000 cases per day over the past few weeks, and around 4,000 deaths each day. Countless people have been unable to access treatment as hospitals and medical facilities have been running out of oxygen and ICU beds.
High rents in cities like Mumbai and New Delhi have forced poor people into crowded and cramped living spaces where they share communal toilets and water facilities, leaving them at greater risk of contracting COVID-19. (Photo: Atul Loke, Panos / Oxfam)
Oxfam is working with the Indian government to ensure a substantial increase in the health budget to strengthen the Indian public health system. (Photo: Atul Loke, Panos / Oxfam)
A man waits outside a factory to get his oxygen cylinder refilled, amidst the spread of the coronavirus disease in New Delhi, India. (Photo: Adnan Abidi/Reuters)
