Sunday, December 07, 2025 | 09:17 PM ISTहिंदी में पढें
Business Standard
Notification Icon
userprofile IconSearch

With no income and food, Dharavi gasps for air as Covid-19 cases increase

Overcrowding, unsanitary conditions in Asia's largest slum pose big challenges to containment

Dharavi, slum, coronavirus
premium

So far, Dharavi has reported five cases, including one death — that of a 56-year-old man

Viveat Susan Pinto Mumbai
The roads are empty, the shops closed, and some areas are cordoned off. Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, is locked down like the rest of Mumbai. However, the rising number of coronavirus (Covid-19) cases in thisteeming shantytown, where people live in huts and decrepit tenements, has put it front and centre of India’s fight against the coronavirus outbreak. 

So far, Dharavi has reported five cases, including one death — that of a 56-year-old man. But there is fear that the numbers could inch up in a place where people grapple daily with overcrowding and unsanitary conditions. To add to their misery,