Poor awareness, indifferent attitude leave slums dwellers vulnerable

TNN | Mar 30, 2020, 04.57 AM IST

Madurai: No disinfection measures or awareness drives and add to it the belief that they won’t be affected by Covid-19 - this is situation in most of slums in the city even as the lockdown is in place to combat the disease. At the slum in MK Puram, a dense residential locality, residents said their streets remain unclean and not disinfected, while in Melavasal residents say they “don’t have anything to worry about”.

“No one comes to the interiors in our area. Even now you can see bleaching powder spread on the main road but not anywhere near here. No official has come here to talk about Covid-19 or prevention. We learnt from watching news only that Madurai has some positive cases. Still, no one cares,” said Ranjit Kumar P, a resident of MK Puram.

He added that, like him, many in the area are sanitary workers for the Madurai Corporation. While the workers keep the city clean and continue to work hard to implement preventive measures for Covid-19 like cleaning and disinfecting, ironically, their own residential areas neglected.

Many of the spaces throughout the neighbourhood also had litter piling up despite efforts by residents. “Sewage water overflows from the manhole here, creating a stink in the area and we have to clean it up ourselves. We have many children living here too who are exposed. We have complained repeatedly but no one comes to help. We have always been neglected so it is not surprising we are neglected during these times too,” said Kamatchi M, a long-term resident.

At the slum in Melavasal, officials have carried out disinfection measures and awareness campaigns but the streets remain crowded apart from hygiene issues. Children could be found sitting outside eating food and playing games in groups. “Corporation officials came to disinfect with bleaching powder. They also told us to keep clean and warned about Covid-19. They did their duty but we have nothing to worry about. No one who returned from foreign countries live here,” said Meena G, a resident.

Like Meena, most residents of slums, including in MK Nagar, people believed that since there was no one who returned from abroad live in and around their areas, there was no chance of infection at all. A general lack of awareness about Covid-19 is prevalent among residents of slum areas leaving cause for serious concern as Tamil Nadu has already entered stage 2 of transmission. “If we don’t wear masks or touch someone, we’ll get Corona? It is all just hype. We have nothing to worry,” said a youth at Melavasal slum, even as the whole country is under lockdown for 21 days.

City health officials maintained that they have been continuing to conduct disinfection and awareness drives for Covid-19 throughout the city, including slum areas. They added that measures will be taken not to miss out on any areas.