Change in the Time of Pandemics: Social, Economic and Medical

The Covid-19 pandemic has me thinking.

Which are the areas that are affected the most today AND why is it so difficult to contain?

Urban areas with a sizable population that live in slums or clustered houses. Areas where social distancing is near impossible. Where access to education is absent and literacy level is very poor. Where access to public dispensaries and hospitals are very poor. Where they are available are of such low quality that going there might get a person more ill-health than when they went there in the first place. These need not be super speciality hospitals but where basic curtesy, cleanliness and availability of supplies exist.

India must realize now the cost of neglecting and appeasing its squatters and hutment areas.

India must realize the importance of education, multifarious skill-building and building preventive, predictive and clinical health facilities.

India must understand the importance of the collective where small and medium scale units need to pool together to make a big brand. Underlying they might still be individual units but the collective scale is important to run down overall costs and get larger. Initially, these can be built as co-operatives but within 5 years of incorporation as a co-operative, they must be chartered to either form a public limited company or wind down. The small and medium scale is important but if we want to aim to be a factory to the world, we need to think big.

We need to go on a war scale with legislation put in (with no recourse to courts in this matter) to the construction of good quality, earthquake-resistant housing. And I do not mean just housing. Read on for the details.

It is also important to provide for utilities in these new development zones to utilize the best of space utilization techniques and reusable material that will keep things weather resistant - rain, heat, cold, wind, pressure. These buildings will have to be built with water and electric supply to individual houses but with electronic electric and sensor-based water utilization. There has to be deep rainwater harvesting techniques and also complete reliance on renewable sources of energy to keep costs low for the new boarders. Since these new constructions will be vertical in nature, fault-tolerant lifts (multiple) and vertical landscaping need to be provided for. Security systems should be in place. Water and sewage treatment need to be provided for inhouse. People inhouse need to be trained for maintenance of various areas by ITIs and private training (as part of corporate social responsibility initiatives). This will generate internal and external employment opportunities. These will also be self-sustaining.

All such inhabitations should also have thick flora and man-made water bodies associated with them: 2-3 acres need to be allocated for this. The tree cover should be thick around the boundaries and intermittent and landscaped around the buildings. The buildings itself should have landscaped gardens.

A few patches should be identified and allotted at a cost to interested people. They should be able to cultivate crops and sell them. This can be changed based on crop pattern and should ideally be done on a round-robin or through the drawing of lots. Central and state agriculture departments should advise and help on all areas of cultivation.

Access to healthcare and health building activities should be available at hand. Sports and basic gyming equipment should be available within the premises. Walking/ running zones should be created. Children play areas should also be available within the premises. Playgroups and basic literacy areas and community reading and group activities should be made available. Ability to celebrate festivals together and building social harmony should be encouraged. The community areas can also be utilized in imparting civic, social and important news. This area can also be used to teach self-defence and other extracurricular activities. Supermarkets should be available within the complex. These supermarkets should also be permitted to work as ration shops for the underprivileged.

Quality is paramount. In the end, every future resident needs to be educated and community-based cleanliness programs should be mandatorily carried out.

Ownership of controlling the lack of quality/ transgression on the charter of rights and duties should be done by the residents along with the civic authorities. Emphasis on cleanliness is a must at all times. It will take time but over time people will learn. Littering, spitting, etc. should be discouraged from the beginning through fines and such measures. The quality and the construction should be of such high standards (built to last 100 years) that owners of apartments should demand the same or higher quality at value for money from builders.

All residents need to be linked through PAN/ Aadhar. Tracking their finances should be allowed. Mobile numbers linked to Aadhar should be used for tracking. Allotment should be based on Aadhar and PAN only. All contracts should be digitized and should be blockchains.

The maintenance of these buildings should be given inhouse and the charges to be collected from the inhabitants. Quarterly maintenance charges should be collected upfront. If they are not able to pay, these need to be identified through PAN and marked. When they have money, an automated reminder needs to be sent and the collection is done.

These houses would be given on lease-basis - NO OWNERSHIP.

If any of the original inhabitants owned pieces of land, they should be given market value rates but the new habitations have to be non-transferable leaseholders. The ownership will remain with housing development boards as per Acts enacted this effect.

People who are not able to agree to the charter they had agreed on signing up should be warned up to 5 times with repetition of the charter. But if there is no improvement, they need to be taken to a correctional unit. The provisions to the Act required for such housing bodies should provide for these correctional methods. This can range from 2 weeks to 6 months. It is important to note that this is not a prison but a correctional area where such people wean of their long-standing habits and learn to calm down and learn something new.

Each of these slum areas currently is a cesspool of dirt, lack of space and nefarious activities. They are also a lot of talented and happy, contended people who run small to medium businesses in the vicinity. Some may be able to afford better housing outside the city but are not able to do so.

What does each slum cluster entail apart from people staying very close to each other? 

They are also huge employment zones. There are countless small and medium organization as well are small shops running in these areas. So that people are further encouraged to go in for these kinds of collective housing, their proximity to the work location also needs to be looked at. The state governments must take a lead in creating special economic zones in these areas and within these, there could be export promotion zones depending upon

The bottom line is this. All of this will require a LOT of money. If I were to hazard a guess, in a city like Mumbai for instance, such construction would cost anywhere between 250 million to a billion dollars depending on the size of the habitation. But we can get FDI, World Bank aid and loans, housing development funds, central and state provisions, bank loans and crowdfunding. Each such unit will require multiple discussions with residents of the identified slum, agreement to come to terms, actual construction and the maintenance. This will require time and effort but it will also provide a lot of employment opportunities. It should make cities safer and more pretty with a lot more green cover. As an important aside, this will also free up land for further "planned" development.

Any further construction anywhere in India must follow civic norms on planned development or else the permit should not be provided in the first place. But this is a topic for another day!

I believe these measures will bring about a sea change in how we have lesser diseases overall. Moreover, it will be much better controlled in case of pandemics!