The #FightInequality anthem encapsulates the humanitarian crisis triggered by the pandemic and the deeply entrenched social and economic fault lines

Oxfam’s recently released report ‘The Inequality Virus’ report reveals how the ongoing pandemic has deepened the existing social, economic, digital, gender and caste divides in India. While the wealth of the nation’s top 100 billionaires went up by Rs 12,97,822 crores since March 2020, over 170,000 people lost their jobs every hour just in the month of April 2020. Of the 122 million lost jobs, 92 million were in the informal sector. And now, communities, NGOs, frontline workers and activists are coming together across the world to #FightInequality and ask for a pro-people recovery package from a rigged economic system where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

To pay tribute to those who are demanding an end to corporate greed and unfair concentration of power in the hands of a few, Rahul Ram of the band, ‘Indian Ocean’ has composed a rousing #FightInequality anthem. The anthem is composed in synergy with the Fight Inequality Alliance India (FIA). FIA is a group of leading international and national non-profit organisations, human rights campaigners, women’s rights groups, environmental groups, trade unions, social movements and other civil society organisations fighting inequality.

You can watch the anthem here –

Rahul is a bass guitarist, social activist and music composer and has insightfully woven the theme of inequity in the anthem. The anthem articulates how underserved citizens are denied the right to good education, medical care and shows how the lockdown not only took away livelihoods but subjected migrants to apathy and dehumanising state cruelty. Says Rahul, “Inequality is ever-present across all sectors of the economy and society, and it is important to measure and highlight these inequalities, both from a moral/ethical as well as a policy viewpoint. The pandemic brought several of these inequalities into stark relief. We composed this song to highlight these inequalities, but with a light touch, and structured the song in a way that would allow different groups to sing about the inequalities that affect them the most.  The song then becomes one that can be sung by different people, in different places, times, contexts and languages.”

The anthem ends on a hopeful note with the line, “hum badlenge apna bhaag’ (we will change our fate) and Rahul hopes the message will infuse hope among communities and will be used for street plays, protests and mobilisations across India.