Issues of livelihood and food occupied the minds of youths staying in slums across the city during the lockdown. The Salaam Bombay Foundation (SBF) did a study on mapping needs in slums during the pandemic, and found that not only did more than 60 per cent of youths in the slums report these issues during the lockdown, they think the inflation will be a major problem after it.

Study in two phases
While 82 per cent of the youths have access to the Internet, one-fifth of them couldn't access it due to monetary issues. "Issues mapped in the survey were self-reported by youths and were prioritised depending on the situation experienced by them," said Dr Manasi Bawdekar, vice president – Research and Monitoring and Evaluation, SBF. The SBF reached out to 2,553 individuals across 24 wards of the city. The study was conducted in two phases – first in lockdown 2 – from April 15 to May 3 and the second in lockdown 3 – from May 4 to May 17. For phase 2, the interaction was made with 88 per cent (2,164) participants from phase one. Out of the total participants, 93 per cent were between 14 to 20 years old. The other seven per cent included some below age 12 and their families. Most of their parents (fathers of 36 per cent and mothers of 83 per cent) were contract workers. Other parents were daily wage workers, shop keepers, vendors, drivers etc.