A whopping 101 people have been living in a temporary Mumbai shelter house located at the Uttar Bharatiya Sangh College in Bandra Kurla Complex, reported The Indian Express. This has defeated the objective behind nationwide lockdown that was announced in the wake of Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak
The condition of the shelter home is reportedly deplorable. The residents comprising mostly of cancer patients, beggars, and migrant workers have been living in close quarters. With non-existent provisions for isolation and a common toilet, life has been difficult for the residents of the shelter home. A total of 17 outstation cancer patients were shifted to the temporary shelter home.
As such, an 18-month-old cancer patient Noor Ali has been forced to live in close quarters with his parents in the shelter house. His mother, Sahiba fears that such close proximity may aggravate her child’s condition. Ali’s father Zafar who earns ₹200 as a construction worker in Jabalpur has run out of savings.
He is also accompanied by his sister Muskaan and mother Nazneen. Prior to the lockdown, the family was sleeping on the street outside the Tata Memorial Hospital where Noor was undergoing treatment for his cancer condition. They are somehow surviving on food supplies provided by good Samaritans.
It was only on Friday that civic authorities stepped in to ensure social distancing by segregating the cancer patients from the rest. Mumbai municipality’s Assistant Commissioner (Planning) Dr. Sangeeta Hasnale informed the patients and their families would be shifted to an alternate self-contained facility in Parel.
20-year-old Sanjay Kumar who was advised to get screened at the Parel hospital is in a serious condition. His leg is bandaged but that the doctors are yet to attend to him. His brother Vijay Kumar said that if they had money, they would not have come to this facility. He complained, “They keep saying emergency hai to kahin aur dikha lo”
Another woman named Ushadevi Kesari who is crammed into the same facility as Zafar pleaded to be taken out of the Mumbai shelter house. Surendra, her husband and the breadwinner of the family, has been diagnosed with cancer. The family of 6 was too sleeping outside the hospital. Ushadevi said that she had not been able to feed her 18-month-old daughter, Ruhi after she was moved at the Mumbai shelter house. Sadly, the family is unaware of the outbreak of the Chinese virus.
