Slum dwellers face starvation in curbs, Covid otherwise

Nagpur: The possibility of losing livelihood due to Covid-induced lockdown has left Vivek Sahu, a daily wage worker from Vandevi slums, deeply worried. The prospect of no work and no income is scary for him, as it will drive his five-member family to starvation. “No income is more serious than getting infected by coronavirus,” he says, shuddering at last year’s horrifying lockdown experience.
“This time around we are not even receiving any help from non-government organisations or from the state or central government for ration,” says Sahu.
Vandevi in north Nagpur is one of the biggest slums in the city. “Vandevi dwellers fear dying of starvation more than Covid,” says activist and founder director of Centre for Sustainable Development Leena Buddhe.
Sahu and his neighbours say they are not worried about Covid-19 infection, as nobody has been infected in their locality so far. “We wear masks and wash our hands regularly. We also do salt-water gargles as much as we can, to stay protected from the deadly disease,” they say.
Residents of over 400 slums are living under twin threat of no work due to pandemic induced restrictions and of contracting the virus, said some of the slum dwellers on Wednesday.
At Dipty Signal and Vanadevi slums, people have no steady jobs. They lead a hand-to-mouth existence and with nobody distributing food, like last year, all of them are close to starving, most say.
Only 10% of the population at Dipty Signal slums have work, but that too isn’t assured when they step out every day. The remaining have no work.
At Siddeshwari slum, the dwellers are sure they will die of starvation. “None of us has any work. Whatever meagre supplies we have collected are depleting fast and we will starve to death if we don’t get ration and other help,” says Ramesh Jaibhai.
No help has come from the government so far. Though the government announced free ration, nobody knows when it will arrive. Situation is turning from bad to worse, Buddhe points out.
Some slums like Indora are severely impacted by Covid-19 with patients in every lane. “The houses are small and congested, so isolation or physical distancing is a far cry,” says Buddhe. Unlike last year, there are no facilities of Covid care centres this time. Now, Indora residents have decided to convert Shravasti Buddha Vihar into a 30-bed quarantine centre.
“Slum dwellers here stay in small rooms, and a quarantine centre will help contain the spread of the coronavirus,” says Buddhe.