Abstract
COVID-19 has severely impacted the society not only in terms of health but also in terms of economic survival of individuals. Unless adequate support is provided, the pandemic will have long-lasting effects, especially on the lives of the most vulnerable, often working in the informal sector. In this article, we present a case study drawing on systems thinking and complexity theory, outlining how the city of Mumbai has responded to COVID-19. We find a multifaceted scenario where non-profit organizations, businesses and citizen volunteers operate alongside government bodies to support Mumbai’s population to overcome this pandemic. We provide broader policy lessons, as well as more specific lessons in relation to particular actors, from the first wave of the pandemic stressing the importance of becoming ‘systems thinkers’ and highlighting the importance of forming new partnerships and exploring new modes of knowledge sharing to effectively respond to crises.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented and different from any other crises we have experienced in recent history
Since one of the co-authors of this article is based in Mumbai, India, we were in the fortunate position to get a sense of what it means to live through the changes this pandemic has brought about, including how people experience and cope with effects triggered by the actions of the different actors involved in responding to this crisis
In the case of Mumbai, we see this in the way individuals came together as individual citizens, as leaders of NPOs, as volunteers from the private sector and as representatives of Government of Maharashtra (GMH) and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to address this crisis; for example, individuals began organizing themselves into networks and enabling aid to flow to migrants and day labourers
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented and different from any other crises we have experienced in recent history. To prevent further escalations and to control the population and thereby the disease, the colonial government decided to make use of the military, for example, using Sepoy regiments where available, searching for plague victims in a manner that looked very much like a surprise military raid (Klein, 1988: 745; Sarkar, 2001) These actions were justified under the 1897 established ‘Epidemic Diseases Act’, which gave the government the power to enact special measures, prescribe regulations and impose penalties to combat pandemics (Government of India, 1897). The use of force and the application of military metaphors in the context of diseases is not new and dates back as far as the first cholera pandemics in the early 19th century, which coincided with a decisive phase of British expansion in India (Arnold, 1986)
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