Social interaction in the time of social distancing
- Vol.86(4), April
- Mumbai Indian Institute of Architects 2021
- 12-16p.
The pandemic induced by COVID-19 virus has triggered the debate on reasons of rapid virus spread in cities. Since personal contact was the primary reason for virus spread, many countries in the first half of 2020 im- posed a complete lockdown of cities and closed all public places. This paper looks critically at the relationship between housing form, social interaction and informality at the time of such lockdown and social distancing. The paper has collected data in Pune city between April to August 2020 by applying the qualitative method of structured interviews and public observation. The data collected is analysed from the framework of exchange, trust and locality knowledge to reveal how residents of four diverse housing forms received their daily supplies from informal businesses. During lockdown, Indian cities faced challenges of economic crises and residents struggled to obtain daily supplies. The plight of informal workers was epitomised by the exodus of labours from many large cities of India. The paper refers to the theory of D-System, economy of cities and informality to discuss the important yet forgotten contribution of informal workforce in building, running and help- ing the cities to survive a catastrophic pandemic. The paper concludes by establishing the relation of formality of housing form with formality of social interaction. The data also indicates that informality is the critical knowledge for urban planning of Indian cities and the housing form which promotes informality leads to more sustainable urban form and builds a cohesive soci- ety. These conclusions are expected to be a critical contribution for further research to build epistemological concepts on informality in city planning and housing form to survive any such future catastrophe.