Sanjay Kumar, the man who keeps Delhi safe from mosquitoes

Kumar and his friends, as Domestic Breeding Checkers, destroy breeding hotspots, educate residents

Skinny, short and noticeably sharp, Sanjay Kumar, 42, was a young, unmarried man in his early 20s when he had joined municipality service as a Malaria beldar (worker). It was 1996 and the vector-borne disease had taken the form of an epidemic with hundreds of patients being rushed to overcrowded hospitals every month.

The municipal corporation had swung into action to assemble a workforce of field workers. There was little awareness about prevention, detection and cure of dengue, malaria, chikungunya and encephalitis, and the new recruits were tasked with controlling the spread of these diseases and educating the residents on a