Soutik Biswas June 23rd, 2020 from BBC News

In one of the world’s most congested shanty towns, social distancing is not a luxury people can afford. And density is a friend of the coronavirus.

Imagine more than 500,000 people spread over 2.5 grubby sq km, less than a square mile. That’s a population larger than Manchester living in an area smaller than Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.

by Dharmendra Kumar — June 24, 2020 from Counter Currents

It is said that COVID does not differentiate. Yet, people on the margin have been differently impacted by COVID. Street vendors are one such vulnerable group. With lockdown, streets wore a deserted look. Street livelihood vanished all of a sudden. Street vendors, generally outlawed and operating with meagre capital and various kinds of livelihood insecurities and restrictive and punitive regulatory authorities found it hard to survive through the lockdown.

ACORN International board members, supported by their staff, convened in a first global Zoom call today. ACORN leaders from 15 countries and 20 affiliates joined the call and participated using translators and translation software.

Laxmi Kamble our  frontline field coordinator  for distributing food provisions during covid 19 featured in the Washington Post story on Dharavi.  In One of the World’s Largest Slums, the Fight Against Coronavirus has Turned into a Struggle to Survive.

ACORN organizers distribute food to neighborhood residents

Social distancing is impossible, and life is becoming very hard for the slum’s hundreds of thousands of residents