Urban Slum as a Hotspot for Pandemic in India

This research work is an exploratory research work to analyze the effect of pandemic in the lives of those living in poor dwellings/slum and to investigate their rapid developmental pattern amongst the major informal settlements in India. To execute this study, major slums of Maharashtra, Delhi, and Chennai were taken into consideration. These dwellings are often overcrowded and makes social distancing, self-quarantine quixotic. The spread of this type of virus is usually through human contacts, and the major concerns about the potential burden of COVID-19 in slums could be narrowed down to epidemiological, transmission, and health sector vulnerabilities, which involves people who are at most risk of COVID-19 like the ones suffering from chronic illness, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases, questionable housing facilities and social structures, substandard sanitation and unventilated confined spaces. This study enables us to get a wider perspective of the pattern of spread. It explores the microbial aspects of COVID spread and aims to present a complete analysis of the pattern of spread in various slums that could be used as a tool by the concerned authorities dealing with COVID-19.