This is an excerpt from the sixth edition of the India Exclusion Report, a collaborative effort involving institutions and individuals working with a shared notion of social and economic equity, justice and rights. The report seeks to inform public opinion around exclusion and the role of the state and to influence policy-making towards creating a more inclusive, equitable and just society. The annual publication is anchored by the Centre for Equity Studies and edited by its director, Harsh Mander.
The current pandemic is one of the most severe crises in global public health that the world has ever faced. On April 29, 2020, speaking at a global United Nations event, the organisation’s secretary general, Antonio Guterres, made a statement regarding medical products to combat the pandemic: “These new tools will help us to fully control the pandemic and must be treated as global public goods available and affordable for all.”
This declaration was soon re-enforced by a…