04 April,2021 07:01 AM IST | Mumbai | Gaurav Sarkar
This smiling crew forms a part of the team responsible for monitoring crowds and trying hard to make sure no one escapes without a test. Pics/Sayeed Sameer Abedi
It is 3 pm on a Wednesday afternoon at Kurla Terminus. The shrill air whistle announces the arrival of a long distance train. Suddenly, there is movement on the platform. A motley group of people, largely young men in their 20s, settle around a wooden table set up, arranging sheafs of papers. Two men in blue, with ID cards that read GeneHealth dangling around their necks, scurry to the foot of the crossover bridge that will allow alighting passengers to cross and exit the station. In a few seconds, they stand side by side, their arms out, blocking entry to the bridge. They are helped by a few members of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and the Mumbai police, who stand in the way of other sundry exists. To the casual observer, this seems like an organised drill. But it's all in a day's work for the group of 36 at Kurla, behind the BMC's Rapid Antigen Testing campaign ongoing at Mumbai's various railway stations. This crack team's responsibility is to test each and every passenger alighting from a train who doesn't provide a negative RT-PCR test report as recent as three days ago, and is arriving into the city from high-risk COVID infection zones. On an average, Kurla Terminus sees the arrival of around 16 outstation trains.
The crowds line up for their tests
As the train pulls into the platform, hundreds spill out, suddenly halted in their steps by the RAT team which guides them to form a single file. The queue leads to the wooden table which is stacked with forms and RAT kits. Furnishing the Aadhar/PAN Card and filling in the form makes them eligible for the free test. Results are handed to the passengers within a few minutes of conducting the test. "Most passengers have no idea that they will be tested at the station if they fail to provide a negative RT PCR test," says medical officer Harish Kori, who heads the squad entrusted with conducting free antigen testing at the station. "We learn which platform [there are five at Kurla] the said train will be arriving barely five minutes prior. It's in this window that we must be ready. Every member is aware of his designated role and takes position. It's critical no one leaves without our intervention," he adds. When he has the time, Kori sometimes makes his way to the control room to make an announcement that puts unaware passengers at ease. It helps them not feel ambushed once they alight.
Volunteers gear up in their PPE
The team's GeneHealth volunteers say they have learnt to think on their feet in the four months it has been operating here. A last minute change in platform means they must sprint to the said destination, ready to take position before the crowds arrive. These 13 volunteers are helped by 12 lab technicians, five commandos, one BMC guard, a doctor, and a coordinator. The remaining members are security officials from RPF, Mumbai Police, as well as additional security hires by the BMC. Kari says the second wave and rising infections have meant that they are conducting far more tests than they did a month ago. Their daily average target - 1,000. That's 750 more tests per day than when they started late last year.
Keep testing kits ready on a desk
They manage to perform this complicated task while factoring in variable change because Kari watches like a hawk, his hands behind his back, as the technicians and volunteers entrusted with making passengers fill out the necessary paperwork before conducting tests on them, work like clockwork. But he admits that the toughest part of the job is handling non-cooperation. "Some passengers are adamant about not getting tested. Interestingly, most of them don't have a valid reason for saying no to the test. They simply say: mujhe nahin karna hai. At this point, the team has to move in and politely explain to them how grave the health crisis in the city is, as in all of Maharahstra. Testing is for their own safety, and their family's. It is only after counseling them that they agree to get tested." If a passenger tests positive, s/he is moved into an ambulance waiting outside the station and taken to the hospital.
Mumbai Police official Navnat Lenke, who is part of Kori's team, says, "When people get off the train, there is only one way to exit the platform. We block the necessary bridges to stop the sprinter. What's left open is just one pathway which they cannot cross unless they produce a valid negative test or undergo the free Rapid Antigen Test." He says there is the occasional "runner" who tries to escape without getting tested. "But RPF and security officials blocking the bridges stop the sprinter from escaping," he says with a straight face.
Shadaab Sheikh, a BMC security helper is part of the bunch that accosts the runners. "Once we stop them in their tracks, our job is to explain convincingly the importance of this test. We are usually successful. Those who remain stubborn are taken to Kori Sir who coaxes them in his own unique way." His colleague Rajendra Patil shares how some passengers refuse to fill in the necessary details in the form. Lenke admits that heated arguments are commonplace, more now because testing has been ramped up.
Speaking with mid-day, 18-year-old Khan Mohammed Tauseef, a commerce student studying at the Rajiv Gandhi College of Arts, Commerce, and Science, who has been working as a paid volunteer with the team for the last 10 days, says: "It's an unusual work experience. Some days are actually quite enjoyable, and we are fulfilled by the fact that we have done our duty. My brother and I were both looking for jobs but no work was available. This is better than sitting idle at home. I do whatever is demanded of me - whether it is filling out the form for passengers or administering the test. My experience so far has been positive. We have grown to become a team that is now like family."
