7 Lakh population, 450 toilets for the entire population, small streets, at least 40 houses in a small street. More number of people per square kilometer. This is a brief introduction to one of the world’s largest slums “Dharavi”. But this Dharavi now stood as an inspiration for the world for best-containing measures they took against the corona virus. Recently, the WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION took DHARAVI as an example to the world during a press meet. Here, in this article, we will know about the measures they took to contain the coronavirus.
When corona started to hit India, everyone was worried about Dharavi. Because, if the virus enters the slum area, it would become a disaster. The same thing happened in the early stages of the virus. Daily, Dharavi registered 1000 cases continuously which worried everyone. Then, the officials started thinking innovatively. Under the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) the assistant commissioner started MISSION DHARAVI. Generally, the world uses the technique of finding the patients, their contact tracing, and then quarantining the primary contacts. But, BMC knows this would not work in Dharavi and thus they started an innovative way of containing the virus.
Around 6 lakh people were tested in Dharavi and 14000 people tested positive and 13000 people got quarantined. Testing 6 lakh samples were not at all easy. Each day, medical workers set up a “fever camp” in different parts of the slum. The government hired private doctors and made them conduct fever camps in every street. Around 8000 senior citizens were taken away from the slum immediately after the virus started spreading. Schools, mosques, temples in the slum were converted into quarantined centers and the government-provided them with healthy food and immunity-boosting medicines.
Social distancing was highly impossible in Dharavi. So, BMC came up with a new idea COVID YODHAS. The yodhas consisted of local leaders and their workers who stood along with police to maintain social distancing. Those 450 toilets in Dharavi were cleaned daily with the help of sanitation workers. Mobile toilets were constructed to meet the need of the people. Thus, with the help of officials, sanitation workers, COVID has mission Dharavi became successful. For the past 10 days, the slum recorded only 4,6,12 cases.
