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In containment zones, WhatsApp groups are the new lifelines
On Thursday, a police head constable, seated close to one of the barricades, could be seen diligently going through his WhatsApp messages and scribbling on his notepad.
A 10-metre lane, barricaded on both ends and crammed with buildings populated by nearly 160 families, in east Delhi’s Kishan Kunj, is a coronavirus containment zone. And a WhatsApp group – ‘GALI no. 4’ – is its lifeline.
On Thursday, a police head constable, seated close to one of the barricades, could be seen diligently going through his WhatsApp messages and scribbling on his notepad.
“WhatsApp has turned out to be a useful resource in these containment zones, in terms of ensuring delivery of essentials to residents,” chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday after a review meeting on containment zones in the city.
Delhi currently has 60 such no-go zones.
HT visited the permissible peripheries of four containment zones on Thursday and found that the same WhatsApp-enabled system was being followed in all four areas. Messaging groups have been created and one member from each family make up the members. The administrators are police officers, officials from the subdivisional magistrate’s office, and at least one office-bearer of the local residents’ welfare association (RWA).
Throughout the day, the containment zones witness a slew of measures being taken under a drafted protocol. They include periodic sanitisation drives, police patrolling, door-to-door health checks and test sample collections for individuals with cold or flu-like symptoms.
Amid all that, residents keep making lists of essential items – food, fruits, milk, vegetables, and groceries – as and when they remember it. They then post these on the groups, an official said.
This leads to Step 2: A police personnel or government official makes a note of the lists and alerts vendors on how much provisions to bring. Then, a group of vendors, who have been assigned certain time slots by officials, arrive at the barricades with their carts.
Through the same WhatsApp groups, residents are asked to come to the barricades in groups of two or three, in order to ensure social distancing, and collect the essentials after making payment. The barricades define the limits of life in a lockdown-- no one is allowed to physically cross them.
“Earlier, we were receiving a lot of complaints about people in containment zones not being able to get essentials. A containment zone should not be perceived as a punishment zone. It is for people’s own safety. That is why a standard operating procedure (SOP) regarding WhatsApp groups and how they are to be administered was floated through the subdivisional magistrates earlier this week,” a senior government official said.
He further said complaints have reduced and in several containment zones, no fresh case has been reported since they were sealed. Containment zones in Kishan Kunj, Vasundhara Enclave, Dilshad Garden and Khichripur have emerged as model zones under the Delhi government’s operation SHIELD.
“SHIELD” is an acronym for “Sealing, Home Quarantine, Isolation and Tracking, Essential Supply, Local Sanitisation and Door-To-Door Checking”.
“The instructions were clear. One cannot enforce containment without ensuring that residents get all essentials regularly. We are doing our best,” Arun Mishra, district magistrate, east Delhi, said.
South district follows a slightly different protocol. Retailers have also been included in the WhatsApp groups so that officials do not have to make notes. The retailers drop the order at the collection point. But there is an added responsibility --- municipal workers and government officials have to ensure 100% doorstep delivery beyond that point and collect the money in case of cash payments.
“This strategy is to ensure nobody comes out of their homes at any cost. Not even till the barricades. WhatsApp groups have made our task much easier,” B M Mishra, district magistrate, south Delhi, said.
Jugal Kishore, head of community medicines department in Safdarjung Hospital, called it a good strategy. “Isolation and social distancing are must under the current circumstances and they have to be strictly followed in the containment zones to prevent any possible spread of the virus. These are vulnerable areas which demand innovative ways to make lives easier for residents.”
