Civic official moots idea of adopting Dharavi families

Mumbai: In a bid to help Dharavi residents who are facing a financial crisis due to the coronavirus-enforced lockdown, a senior civic official has come up with a novel concept of adopting families from the containment zones of Mumbai’s slum area for next few months.

The idea is to ‘Adopt a Family’ from Dharavi slums, where the coronavirus cases have gone over 150, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s G-north ward assistant commissioner Kiran Dighavkar said.

As a precautionary measure, some areas of Dharavi have been sealed and declared containment zones, from where no family can go out even to buy essential items, he said.

“If one person adopts five families from Dharavi’s slum area for the next couple of months, it will be a great help in our fight against the coronavirus. These people are financially stressed. If these families are adopted, they will not require to come out on streets during the lockdown,” Dighavkar said.

“Already, some multi-national companies and corporates are distributing food packets in Dharavi. If we rope in people who can take care of these families, the BMC can reach out to more people in the containment zones,” he said.

Some areas of Dharavi come under the high-risk category because of the dense population and small houses, the official said.

The risk factor also increases as these people are worried about their future and tend to come out of their houses in search of some work.

“Once they are assured of supply of food grains, vegetables and medicines at regular intervals, they will not come out on streets,” the official said.

The cost of one family’s requirement of food grains, vegetables, edible oil, fruits and medicines for 15 days is around Rs 5,000, he said.

“We are going to hold a meeting with local police officials to work out the plan,” he added.

Dharavi is one of the biggest slum areas in Asia. Nearly 15 lakh people live in this highly congested area of Mumbai.