: Monday, March 8, 2021, 6:11 AM IST
Women's Day 2021: Meet the Covid Sheroes of Mumbai - Police Inspector Mubarak Shaikh and her team fed the homeless during lockdown
Mubarak Shaikh, Police Inspector (in charge Colaba Traffic)
Mumbai: A few weeks ago global Scientists, epidemiologists and the international media were at pains to explain Indiaâs mysteriously sharp decline in Covid 19 cases and deaths after September. Even though there has been a surge since mid-Feb, with an overall death rate of 112 per million people, we can confidently claim that we have fared far better than Europe and North America during this Pandemic.
One can attribute this to the heat, the robust immunity, the relatively younger population etc but letâs not forget very crucial elements which are, a dedicated workforce on the ground at State and Municipality levels and excellent doctors and health care workers, many of who are women. This should come as no surprise. One reads about women being the unsung heroes during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic that claimed 50 million lives. They shouldered the burden of the pandemic because the virus disproportionately affected young men. Although the doctors treating the outbreak back then were almost universally male, it was women as nurses who became the primary caregivers.