Mumbai: Haji Babu Khan, Corporator, Asia’s largest Slum Dharavi, says limited toilets is cause for the raging spread of the infection in Dharavi.Shares his experience with Hello Mumbai News Reporter Amreen Shaikh
Mumbai: Dharavi as of date, stands as the highly affected area of COVID-19. There seems to be no end for the respite to the spread of the epidemic.
Day-to-day, several people are getting affected and the situation is very precarious.
At this time around of the crisis, Hello Mumbai News Reporter Amreen Shaikh, in order to get the actual facts and the real cause behind the massive spread of Coronavirus virus in Dharavi, contacted Haji Babu Khan, the corporator of Dharavi, Mumbai Chief and Minority head of Congress Party for an exclusive interview.
Speaking to Hello Mumbai News Reporter Amreen Shaikh over a phone call,Haji Babu revealed some facts and gave the exact reason of the cause. He went on to mention that there are limited Public Toilets in Dharavi, and this can prove to be highly infectious to all the residents of Dharavi. Nearly thousands of people in a day, use the common toilet.
Further, he said shredding light specially during this serious situation of COVID-19 is very important.
In this environment, some residents of Dharavi are privileged to procure the groceries to care for their survival.
Around 40-50% of hapless migrants moved out, mercilessly stranded, some of them rode and walked to their homes. The migrant labourers, who used to work in factories, were completely relied for their food, as they used to get deliveries in factory itself. Now, in this harsh situation, the altruistic ambitions of ‘Haji Babu Khan’ on learning the plight of migrants, strode to support the noble cause. He and his staff members arranged home cooked food for more than 5000 underprivileged and migrants per day.
Amid Ramzan, they distributed fruits and tetra packs to the unfortunates. Also, they helped in distribution of groceries like, Rice, Lentils, Wheat flour, etc in quantity of 14-15 Kgs per family, to enable their households to run for atleast 15-20 days.
‘The most challenging thing is to keep everyone safe. The staff members working for this deserving cause need to be protected to safeguard others and it thrives upon me to not to let their morale down.’ Says Haji Babu Khan while sharing his stance.
Being Spearhead, he meticulously gets involved in the health affairs of the area.
Helping the underprivileged with the medical requirements, providing emergency hospital services. He states,’ With the help of contacts with all the nearby hospitals we are trying our best to provide medical services to all the needy unfortunates. We are trying our best to find the people who is are in great need and reach them.’
Meanwhile, he also states that BMC is not adequately capable of handling everything. Dharavi might sound as a small place, but the people residing there are around 2-3 lakhs. Once upon a time, the place was famous for its illegal work. Since then there has been a large breakthrough and everything got diversified in a better way. Now is known for its good deeds and has become a business hub. Even the tax collections are done in Dharavi. Central Government and State Government should stride together for this deserving cause to swerve the environs.
‘After putting lot of efforts, the condition in Dharavi doesn’t seem to get to any better. We need to have special team for Dharavi, areawise, so that we can seal the crowded areas and run medical test in all the houses. If we tend to find any corona patients, they could be kept in isolation centre, so that the others are not infected.’ adds the commendable Haji Babu Khan trying to reach out to our Chief Minister Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray. ‘ We hope that our Chief Minister Uddhav Sahab sheds some light on this serious situation.’
Furthermore, Haji Babu Khan sends a message,’ We request everyone stay home and stay safe and be the chain-breakers. Try helping your neighbours who are in need of the
factuals and medical purpose
News Report by Amreen shaikh
News Edited by K V Raman
