Mumbai Diary: The city is doomed if the virus overwhelms Dharavi

Drone shots of a deserted Marine Drive promenade, a stark Gateway of India and photographs of peacocks sauntering in South Mumbai’s quintessential Parsi Colony, straying in from Doongerwadi have been the staple of conversations among middle class Mumbaikars during the lockdown.

But despite being among the world’s top 20 wealthiest cities, ahead of Toronto, Geneva, Frankfurt and Paris, Mumbai actually lives in the network of serpentine lanes in and around Dadar’s Ranade Road and KabutarKhana. Real Mumbai is in the ‘Koliwadas’, in the streets of Lohar Chal and Zaveri Bazar, in Masjidbandar, in old ‘Laal Bazar’ area - now known as the ill-famed ‘Kamathipura’, in the alleys of Vile-Parle as well as Jogeshwari and, in the teeming ‘gullies’ of Dharavi. Nearly half of Mumbai’s population - the real Mumbai, lives in trying conditions, in densely inhabited one-room tenements or in slums.

Dharavi, considered the biggest slum-settlement in Asia, is estimated to have over a million inhabitants living in an area confined to just 535 acres. Its population density is an incredible eight and a half lakh people per square mile.

There are approximately 5,000 small businesses and 15,000 single-room factories in Dharavi. It is the most literate slum in the country, with a literacy rate of 69%. Unlike most urban-slums in the world, Dharavi is not an economic drag on Mumbai. Mostly populated by 2nd or 3rd generation migrants, Dharavi is home-cum-workplace of potters, tanners, weavers, tailors, soap makers, and it also has a massive recycling industry of metals and plastic scrap. It also houses many taxi-drivers and housemaids.

“Born and brought up in Dharavi, and having lived there for over 30 years, I know how fast Covid-19 can ravage this settlement. It is easier for people living in ‘towers’ and ‘societies’ to keep themselves securely isolated in their homes, but inside Dharavi, it is impossible,” says Shankar, a security guard in our housing society.

Latrines are not for a few but for a few hundreds; water is mostly a shared resource and not available freely or for 24-hours a day. Dwellings are tiny, mostly not over 80 to 100 square feet each, and shared on an average by about 6/7 occupants.

“Open gutters and dingy walkways add to our daily woes. It is very nice for babus to lament about shortage of hand-sanitizers, each bottle costing about two hundred rupees, an amount which would provide food to an average dwelling in Dharavi for at least two days,” he added more bitterly.

“Most of us have never visited any place other than our villages outside Mumbai, forget about visiting any foreign country. We are daily wagers or do small odd jobs. A few of us own small businesses. Where will we go? What have we done? What is our fault,” he wailed in despair.

Dharavi doesn’t provide the luxury of ‘Work-From-Home’. If people don’t go out, they would have no food to eat. The problem can be tackled for a few days or a few weeks by accepting charity, but even charity cannot provide water and sanitation. Where and how many can you quarantine? Where is the space for physical distancing?

A music video by a group of rappers from Dharavi, who have come out with a song to spread awareness about the COVID-19 pandemic, is a timely reminder that protecting Dharavi, and similar slum clusters, on whose back the city rides, is necessary to protect Mumbai. That’s what Maharashtra government, Mumbai Police and a few NGOs are rightly and relentlessly focusing on.

Dharavi is fighting back. Dharavi is a place where the mission to save lives is pitted directly against the need to make a living. The fight has turned into the survival of the fittest. If the COVID-19 blitzkrieg overwhelms Dharavi, Mumbai will see the kind of dance of death that it has never seen before.

But how will the fancy Rs 20 lakh crore package and the fancier Arogya Setu App help Dharavi is the question.