ARTICLE | Sister Cities During The Pandemic
The underutilised potential of sister cities in India Partnerships and collaborations amongst cities are not new. They have been established since the start of this century. However, before the COVID-19 pandemic, their aim was limited to growth and development of the concerned cities. The pandemic made many cities realise that their sister cities can actually help them survive. Indian cities, however, are yet to realise the importance of the concept of sister cities and utilise them to their full potential
T
he COVID-19 pandemic has reminded the world of one of the greatest lessons in history– no man can live as an island. The pandemic proved that without strong collaborations between
34 May 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in
people, communities, cities and countries, an obstacle as fierce as the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be overcome. Since coronavirus reached India’s shores in January 2020, numerous cities have grappled with the burden of an ever-increasing caseload
and crumbling health infrastructure. During such a time, what has come to the aid of most cities is knowledge and resource sharing, and adoption of best practices tried and tested by other cities. With Bhilwara proactively containing the spread of the virus during the early days of the pandemic in India, several other cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai followed suit. The information shared by the Bhilwara district administration and the lessons learnt by the urban local bodies of other cities played a vital role in keeping the virus spread steady at the time. However, what must be noted here is that the sharing of information and best practices between Bhilwara and other cities was neither formal, not established through proper channels. It was simply based on what the media reported and what the ULBs of other cities understood. Even though the virus spread in other cities was much more violent in comparison to Bhilwara, it could have been reduced had an established medium of knowledge sharing been used by the concerned cities. A similar case was seen when the city administration of Seoul, capital of South Korea, set up hundreds of drivein testing centres across the city in order to increase the testing infrastructure of the city as much as possible. This
