Fear stalks India’s biggest slum

MUMBAI: Amidst the clogged drains and overflowing garbage dumps of Mumbai’s Dharavi -- one of Asia’s largest slums -- coronavirus fears are growing, and residents say they are powerless to stop the spread of the disease.

The warren of narrow alleys in India’s financial capital -- made famous by the 2008 Oscar-winning film "Slumdog Millionaire" -- is home to around a million people, many of whom work as security guards or domestic workers in upmarket neighbourhoods nearby.

The Indian government announced a lockdown across the country last month, ordering citizens to stay home in the hope that this would contain the spread of the virus. But Dharavi’s crowded streets mean social distancing is near impossible for the people who live there -- even if they only leave home to buy food. The glaring lack of proper infrastructure forces many residents to use public bathrooms, making the area a fertile ground for COVID19 to spread.

Five coronavirus cases have been confirmed among the cramped tin-roofed shanties, flats and small factories that make up Dharavi, including two fatalities.

No one "wants to live in haphazard conditions where 80 people have to share a toilet in the morning", said Vinod Shetty, director of the non-profit ACORN Foundation. But "survival in Dharavi is based on being able to live that close. If everyone asked for six feet distance we would need to have an area three times the size of Dharavi", he told AFP. Its population density is thought to be 270,000 per square kilometre, according to the World Economic Forum.