MUMBAI: In 1898, colonial authorities created the Bombay Improvement Trust on the heels of a disastrous pester to update living conditions in the city. The trust opened up busy areas, developed real estate for workers, and laid down rigorous rules for ventilation and sanitation. Their steps shaped modern Bombay.
Amidst a new pandemic, it’s clear the lessons of the last have actually been long forgotten. The coronavirus that went into the city mostly through its elite is now a threat to its most susceptible, much of whom live in conditions not too far-off from those of the 1890 s.
Recent information shows the wards with the most cases are mostly those with the biggest run-down neighborhood populations (Dharavi, Kurla, Govandi) or highest population densities (Byculla, Worli). The break out is beginning to slow down in some affluent locations that saw the very first cases– like parts of D ward– as the middle-class have actually sealed themselves into apartments and gated communities.
The spillover from highrises