HYDERABAD: Devising a plan that strikes a balance between livelihood and containment of Covid-19 is the need of the hour, note experts as the number of positive cases continue to rise in Hyderabad. This is especially critical for urban slums, which defy the current practices of containment, they say.
Currently, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) only seals buildings from where positive cases are reported and declares these containment clusters. The idea behind this is not to impose the disrupting lockdown measures in nearby areas.
But, how can this practice be implemented in a slum, where houses are stacked close to each other, is the question. “The city is following home containment where a building is blocked off, based on the assumption that residents do not mingle beyond that. But, how will this be implemented in a slum where social interaction is high,” Anant Maringanti, director of the Hyderabad Urban Lab, says. He further explains that with the people and their livelihood options co-existing in the narrow bylanes of a slum, containment can be a major issue.
A visit to a slum at Balangar exposes the dilemma. With two members of her family regularly going out for work, Lakshmi says there is no space to isolate them in their one-bedroom pucca house. “If one falls sick, we all will. My mother is a heart patient and has diabetes too. She must be kept away from those going out, but it is impossible in our house,” she adds. They have rented out a room in their house to another family, and they share the same toilet.
The added burden of losing their livelihood in an eventuality of containment has made them more anxious. Nagaraju, an auto driver from the same slum, says, “In the two months of the lockdown, I lost earnings close to `30,000 because I could not get even a single ride. I have defaulted on my EMI and even now we are not getting any rides as people are scared.
We can’t have another lockdown, even if the virus comes here”. Anant stresses the need for a containment plan that will not hit people living in the city’s slums financially. “It is still unknown as to how the virus will behave, especially in a slum. But the major concern is also that the breaking point of financial reserves is shallow here. Any containment plan has to take into consideration both these aspects,” says Anant.