After WHO, World Bank praises BMC for containing Covid-19 spread in Dharavi

After the World Health Organization, the World Bank has now appreciated the Dharavi model of combating the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Dharavi in Mumbai is the largest slum cluster of Asia – and is one of the top densely-populated localities.

For the Maharashtra government and the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), containing the spread of Covid-19 in Dharavi was one of the biggest challenges.

According to a report, the Washington-based global lender, in its biennial Poverty and Shared Prosperity report, said that in the span of three months, by July 2020, reported cases in the area had been cut to 20 per cent of their peak in May.

World Bank said that in Mumbai, city officials were able to stem the rapid spread of the coronavirus in Dharavi, one of the city's largest urban settlements, by mobilising community members and staff from private medical clinics for a strategy based on mass screening for fever and oxygen levels.

Sandwiched between the Sion and Matunga stations of the Central line and Mahim and Bandra stations on the Western line, the Dharavi locality is a sort of business-cum-residential-cum-warehouse area, where nearly seven to 10 lakh people stay and work, in an area of 2.1 sq km – making it the biggest slum locality of Asia. The famous Mithi river that empties into the Arabian Sea from the Mahim creek passes by the Dharavi area.

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The Maharashtra government and BMC adopted the mantra of four Ts - tracing, tracking, testing, and treating – to combat the spread. The 4Ts model is now being implemented in the whole of Mumbai, the Mumbai metropolitan region, Pune, and several other cities.