SLUM LIFE UNDER LOCKDOWN

Residents of huge Dharavi community in Mumbai face uphill battle to stay healthy.

In homes that are cramped, stuffy and increasingly low on food, residents of the huge Dharavi slum in Mumbai have been struggling under India’s nationwide lockdown to contain the coronavirus. Many of the estimated one million people who live there are stretching out meals and relying on donations. But anxiety has been building ever since the lockdown began on March 25.

Authorities are scheduled to start lifting some restrictions today, but very gradually.

“I used to feed my children when I went out for work, but now there is only sorrow and no work,” said Najma Mohammad, who was employed at a garment shop that has closed.

Her son and two daughters rely on food handouts from neighbours, she added.

Dharavi, believed to be Asia’s largest slum, is a tough place to be confined, and also one of the most vulnerable to the virus because of the density of its population and poor sanitation.

Hundreds of people sometimes share the same bathroom. Access to clean water is not guaranteed. Soap has become a luxury.

“Anything can happen. There are nine people in this room, all of us could be in danger,” said migrant worker Namchand Mandal, who is from the northeastern state of Jharkhand.

Authorities said they had confirmed 330 Covid-19 cases and 28 deaths in Dharavi as of the end of April, but experts fear the numbers will accelerate higher.

“I am really worried it is just a matter of time,” virologist Shahid Jameel said of Mumbai’s slums, which are home to an estimated 65% of the city’s core population of around 12 million.

Anxious residents have tied handkerchiefs or shirt sleeves around their faces in lieu of proper masks. Some have also barricaded alleyways using carts, bicycles and sticks. Signs warn outsiders to keep away.

Still, many residents say it is impossible to stay confined in small rooms, which are sometimes shared by day labourers who work different shifts.

Deep in the slums, people throng

Anything can happen. There are nine people in this room, all of us could be in danger NAMCHAND MANDAL

Migrant worker in Dharavi

informal markets. Some adults kill time playing chess or watching videos on their cell phones. Children play cricket and cards.

One tailor opened his small shop early in the morning, saying he wanted to make a little money before police arrived later in the day to enforce the lockdown.

Officers have punished lockdown violators by making them sit in the sun, do squats or by hitting them with sticks, according to a Reuters witness.

“It’s very difficult. No one listens to us,” said one police officer in Dharavi, adding that some bank employees shared special passes with friends so they could move around.

Mumbai police did not respond to a request for comment.

BELOW LEFT A health worker writes the date until which a man is ordered to quarantine himself at home, after a resident of his neighbourhood in Dharavi tested positive for Covid-19. LEFT Women and children cover their faces during an anti-virus fumigation drive.

BELOW A doctor wearing a hazmat suit checks the temperatures of slum residents with an infrared thermometer.

Men wearing masks look out from a house in Dharavi, one of Asia’s largest slums, in Mumbai.

LEFT A doctor conducts a swab test on a Dharavi resident to check if he has the coronavirus.

ABOVE A woman sits on a ladder installed outside her house in Dharavi during the nationwide lockdown in India.