India battles to keep virus out of Mumbai's slums

Video Credit: Reuters Studio
Published on April 20, 2020 - Duration: 01:36s

India battles to keep virus out of Mumbai's slums

The sprawling slums of Dharavi in the heart of India's financial capital Mumbai have become a battleground for COVID-19 as health workers try desperately to stem the spread of the coronavirus in its dense and unsanitary bylanes.

Libby Hogan reports.


India battles to keep virus out of Mumbai's slums

Disinfection teams are blasting their machines in India's Mumbai slums. Health teams are working tirelessly, testing children for the coronavirus.

But the sense of desperation is palpable in the slums where sanitation is poor.

Migrant worker Bhola Mandal elaborates: (SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) MIGRANT WORKER FROM EASTERN JHARKHAND STATE, BHOLA MANDAL, SAYING: "There is a problem regarding the toilets, and we don't have anything to eat, there is absolutely nothing left to eat.

Coronavirus has already reached Dharavi, and we don't want to fall prey to it.

Arrangements should be made to protect us from the virus, and also food should be provided to us, or else we will die of hunger." Mumbai's Dharavi - believed to be Asia's largest slum - is home to one million people.

They live in tin houses that lean and pile onto one another in very close quarters.

So far over 100 cases have been reported there.

But virologists fear it's a ticking time bomb and that the numbers will soon jump.

Anxiety over a potentially major outbreak has risen since India's lockdown began on March 25 measures now extended to May 3.

The lockdown has already hit people in Dharavi, says resident Ramesh Shashikumar.

(SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) DHARAVI RESIDENT AND A TAILOR, RAMESH SHASHIKUMAR, SAYING: "Here many people don't have anything to eat.

There are cancer patients and many more issues.

People have no way out, to go anywhere, to do anything.

Where will people go if they have no money in their pockets?" And as for social distancing or quarantine?

Most say it's impossible in this neighborhood - when many homes are barely two metres long.

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