Has Mumbai avoided a major hit from COVID-19
By Charles de Souza, trustee, Parisar Asha*
Life in Mumbai appears to be back to pre-COVID-19 days, except for people wearing masks. Restaurants and temples are open, while asking patrons to stay six feet apart, tough to implement in a densely populated city. Relatives, friends and neighbors are driving to Khandala, Goa and other locations, to spend long weekends.
Trains and buses are packed with commuters traveling to work. Construction of residential and commercial buildings has resumed. Amazon, Flipkart and other digital stores are seeing a booming business, as more consumers order groceries, apparel, medicines and food online. Delivery men in uniforms navigate their bicycles, scooters and auto-rickshaws, through the traffic-clogged streets on their way to deliver packages of varying sizes. And the Mumbai stock market is reaching new, record highs.
Earlier this year, when the first cases of COVID-19 emerged, healthcare experts forecast that in the slums of Mumbai, and other urban areas in India, the virus would cause a largely uncontrollable surge in severe medical cases and deaths.
On a personal level, I feared the virus would hurt the families of Meena, Radha and Sapna, who have worked for my family in Santa Cruz, for more than ten years. They live in Kherwadi, a slum on the eastern side of the railway tracks, between Khar and Santa Cruz stations.
The rented room they share with other family members is roughly 100 square feet. There is a cooking stove in one corner and a tiny, cemented washing area in another. They have to go outside and use a communal toilet, having to wait fifteen minutes or more, since there is only one toilet for about 20 residents of the slum. Each morning, they also have to wait in long lines to fetch water from a communal tap.
All three of them were forced to start working in their early teens, in order to support their parents and siblings. So, they went to school for only a few years.
Radha and Sapna, both in their 40’s, work for us about six hours a week, cleaning the apartment and washing dishes and clothes. They have similar jobs with five other families in Santa Cruz and Khar, earning a total of about Rs.20,000 ($270) a month.
Five years ago, we loaned Radha’s husband Rs.70,000 ($900), at no interest, to help him buy an auto-rickshaw. Unfortunately, he cannot work two or three days a week since he has frequent attacks of asthma. He rents the rickshaw to other drivers when he is unable to drive, and also during hours when he is not working.
They have two boys who received mediocre grades in their high school exams. The teenagers are studying for a degree in commerce, while working part-time as delivery men.
Meena, in her 50’s, shops and cooks for us, working about three hours a day, four times a week. We pay her Rs. 6,000 ($80 a month). She cooks for three other families. She shares her room with her sister who earned a degree in commerce from Mumbai University. The sister works as an administrative assistant at Bank of India, a government-run company, earning about Rs.32,000 ($430) a month.
I was also fearful for Rose and her family. She used to cook for us, leaving twelve years ago to start a catering business. Her three cheerful daughters, who have college degrees, now work with her. The daughters, who gave up clerical jobs to take care of their children, also live in Kherwadi.
The daughters post a daily menu on Facebook. They and the other staff cook and deliver hot meals of rice, rotis, vegetables, dal and curries to customers. They also prepare samosas, sandwiches and cakes for parties. We often order meals from Rose, when we have large gatherings, as well as sugar filled treats for Christmas and Easter.
In March, after the COVID-19 lockdown began in Mumbai, Meena, Radha and Sapna were unable to work. People were allowed on the streets only for medical emergencies and food shopping. Such restrictions were strictly enforced by police patrols.
During the lockdown, we continued paying monthly wages to all three of them. Most of their other employers also paid them, though some reduced the amounts and a few stopped paying altogether, perhaps due to their own weakened financial conditions.
I am relieved that, so far, none of the family members of our employees – as well as those of Rose - were sickened by the virus. Rose’s business has resumed, largely unimpacted by the lockdown. This is not surprising given the quality of her food and good service.
I regularly hear of friends and neighbors being infected by COVID-19. In July, Anu lost both her parents, who were in their 80’s. Three weeks ago, Dinesh, 67, was hospitalized for a week, after he had a severe infection. He is now recovering at home.
The bigger burden faced by many in Mumbai is financial, which is mostly hidden and will likely persist for several years. For instance, less than 10% of employees and their families have post-retirement health insurance coverage. Ramesh, a friend, rushed his 78-year-old father to a hospital after he caught the virus. His father was saved; however, the hospital bills and other treatment costs have drained most of Ramesh’s savings.
Several friends, working for private companies in Mumbai, have lost their jobs. Also, most relatives and friends, who were working in the Persian Gulf, lost their jobs and were forced to return to India. Most are covering their family expenses by using their savings, and some are borrowing from relatives and friends. They all hope to find jobs soon, including in the Persian Gulf, which could be tough for those without good technical skills.
In Mumbai, according to official statistics, there have been about 275,000 COVID-19 cases and 10,700 deaths. Since many of the workers and migrant laborers in the city returned to their villages and towns, it is more appropriate to look at the data for the state of Maharashtra. In the state, of which Mumbai is the capital, nearly 47,000 have died from about 1.8 million cases. India has seen over 9 million cases, the second highest after the U.S. and over 133,000 deaths, the third highest after the U.S. and Brazil.
The COVID-19 cases and fatalities in Mumbai - as well as Maharashtra - are relatively low, based on the population, and especially when compared to cities like New York and Madrid. Mumbai, with over 20 million residents, has a population density of more than 73,000 per square mile, the second highest in the world after Dhaka, Bangladesh. Like Meena, Radha and Sapna, over half of Mumbai’s population live in over-crowded slums. For instance, Dharavi, the city’s largest slum on about 520 acres of marshy land, has a population density of over 700,000 per square mile.
In July, a study conducted by researchers at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research found that 57% of the residents, of Dharavi and two other slums, had been infected with COVID-19. This wide infection rate could partly be explained by the fact that slum residents, as in Kherwadi, share common facilities such as toilets and water taps.
However, the cases of severe health ailments and fatalities are relatively low. Most residents in the three slums, the study found, survived with few or no symptoms and the fatality rate was very low – less than one in 1,000 of those infected.
The battle against COVID-19 in Mumbai is far from over. Today, for instance, there were 2,000 new cases and 17 deaths reported in the city. Wide and cheap availability of a vaccine in India, which could end the impact of the virus, is perhaps a year away.
Meanwhile slum dwellers in Mumbai deal with numerous infections and diseases, high levels of pollution, unsafe drinking water and unhygienic, cramped living conditions. Such inhumane living conditions cannot be glorified just because severe ailments and fatalities from COVID-19 infections turn out to be low.
The relatively robust protection from COVID-19 though raises a question: why have Mumbai’s slum dwellers fared better than those in affluent countries like the U.S., Spain and U.K, which are equipped with modern medical systems and huge healthcare budgets? Numerous Ph.D. theses and research papers can be expected to seek answers to this question.