Delhi: How these villagers have shut door on coronavirus in Shahpur Jat

AlokKNMishra | TNN | Updated: Apr 21, 2020, 09:01 IST

The villagers have also started a community kitchen

NEW DELHI: The residents of the urbanised Shahpur Jat village in south Delhi, which is surrounded by the containment zones of Chirag Dilli, Hauz Rani, Malviya Nagar and Khirki Extension, have voluntarily created a containment zone to protect themselves from novel coronavirus.
Since the first phase of the lockdown, the villagers have blocked one entry point and barricaded the other two to monitor the entry and exit of people, including vegetable and milk vendors and those with electronic passes.
At the two entrances, thermal screening is done before anyone is allowed entry into the village. “Everyone coming from outside, right from grocers and pharmacists, are screened before being allowed entry. Home delivery boys leave the articles at the entrance and the recipients take it from there,” said Raj Kumar, a local resident.
Through donations, they have purchased three sanitisation machines to sprinkle disinfectants across the village. This has given a boost to the efforts of the government and South Delhi Municipal Corporation to contain the virus.
Community surveillance is being conducted in the entire village and it is being ensured that no one steps out of their homes without wearing a mask. A few individuals who had returned from abroad and were advised home quarantine have tested negative for the disease.
Besides the government hunger relief centre, the villagers have started a community kitchen to feed the poor, mostly tenants and migrant labourers. After chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s appeal, many landlords waived the rent, while some deferred it.
Kuldeep Panwar, a villager, said that despite being surrounded by containment zones, no positive Covid-19 case has been reported from the village. “Everyone has donated according to their capacity to fund sanitisation and feeding the poor,” he added. While some contribute dry rations, others give LPG gas cylinders to help prepare the food.
“Everyone has been united in fighting the crisis and shown the true example of community living. Our community kitchen feeds 1,500 poor people twice a day. The youngsters guard the entrances to the village night and day. We are also ensuring that no gathering takes place inside the village,” said another local, Om Prakash Panwar.
The villagers became tense after many areas started being declared containment zones one after the other. Locals said the village is over 500 years old and houses are built in close proximity. The population has grown significantly over the past few decades, mostly because of tenants.
On April 14, the villagers wrote to police after they found that some people were not taking the lockdown seriously. Rajat Kaushik, another resident, that that a group regularly goes around the village making an appeal over a public address system for people to stay indoors. Grocery shops were asked to shut down after 7pm after some people were seen defying the lockdown measures pretending that they were going to buy groceries.
South DM BM Mishra said, “The lead taken by the community in the enforcement of the lockdown has helped strengthen the fight against novel coronavirus.”
Aman Panwar, another villager, said that surveillance and regular sanitisation would continue even after the lockdown is lifted to ensure that the village remains safe in the future.