Articles by Apekshita Varshney

In 1997, Stephen Webber, a professor of music production and engineering at the Berklee College of Music, proposed teaching a course in turntablism. What DJs were doing with turntables had opened his eyes to a new musical frontier. But when he proposed teaching the course, Berklee denied. He tried two more times but he was denied on both occasions. Webber explained to the college that turntablism and hip hop was a crucial part of culture. “If we plan to be relevant in academia, we have to address it [hip hop] and learn about it ourselves,” he tried saying. In 2003,…

On 2nd March, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) started a vaccination drive for senior citizens and those over 45 years of age with comorbidities. Since then, over two lakh people have been vaccinated in the city. But due to the surge in COVID-19 cases in Mumbai, where 3,260 patients tested positive just yesterday, BMC is trying to make the process of vaccination easier. On 20th March, BMC announced that those eligible can now simply walk-in to their nearest vaccination centre and get vaccinated. They don't have to wait for their scheduled appointment. But even if you don't have to wait…

Latest reports reveal that over two lakh people have been vaccinated in Mumbai, but the city's major population, citizens from its many bastis, are conspicuously absent from vaccination centres. Consider Cheetah Camp in Mumbai's M-East ward: conversations with multiple residents in Maharashtra Nagar, Cheeta Camp, Shivaji Nagar and other parts show that awareness about COVID-19 vaccination is minimal. "There is absolutely no discussion about vaccination in Cheeta Camp," Nawab Khan, a resident, says. Nawab is part of a community-based organisation formed under Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's Dattak Vasti Yojana or slum adoption scheme. His work is field-based, involving collection of garbage,…

In the first week of February 2020, there was a leak in the Veravali reservoir water pipeline in Andheri East. Neighbouring areas such as Jogeshwari, Kurla, and Ghatkopar were without water for three days. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) workers, the Hindustan Times reported, had to enter 40 feet deep into the earth and "walk for 50 metres to reach the spot and fix the leak by welding the pipeline". It took "150" workers and engineers "60 hours" to fix the leakage. But the fixed leakage did not mean that water reached all homes immediately. Not even close. https://twitter.com/mybmc/status/1223602610286080000?s=20 As…

In the mid 19th century, Bombay got its water from 136 public wells and tanks such as Gowallia Tank, Babula and Byculla, Nagpada, Framji Cowasji and Cowasji Patel Tanks. Most of these were built by citizens, writes Mariam Dossal in her book Imperial Designs and Indian Realities: The Planning of Bombay City. By 1845, trade flourished in Bombay, the population doubled (from what it was 25 years ago), and the scarce water resources came under severe stress. These water sources were dependent on rain, and whenever the rain failed, water supply diminished. Like tankers today, the British government would ply…

Last year, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo launched her re-election campaign, making the idea of a "15-minute city" one of the key pillars of her manifesto. The concept, which simply refers to an urban neighborhood where all essential needs can be accessed within a 15-minute walk or bike ride, was proposed by Sorbonne professor Carlos Moreno in 2016. It has resurfaced to wide interest during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has been included by the C40 Cities, the World Health Organisation (WHO), and UN-Habitat in order to improve the quality of life in the context of COVID-19 and beyond. The idea has…

In 2019, Praja Foundation, a city-based non-profit working towards better urban governance, raised an alarm. They collected data through the Right to Information (RTI) Act and showed that enrolment numbers in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) schools had dropped 10% from 3,43,621 in 2016-17 to 3,11,663 in 2017-18. The number used to be 4,04,251 in 2013-14. If this trend continued, the non-profit warned, BMC would “have no students by 2028”. Praja also commissioned an organisation called Hansa Research to conduct a household survey, which found that 56% from the non-affluent sections of the population would prefer sending their children to a…

Early this year, Dhanashree Panchal, a student of Mumbai’s Khalsa college, participated in a unique initiative. She went around her neighbourhood in Charkop to understand what people thought of Mumbai’s health infrastructure. “I expected COVID-19-related concerns to be on top of people’s minds,” Dhanashree says, “but people were far more worried about the city’s overall health infrastructure.”  Dhanashree is a volunteer with Civis, a city-based organisation that works towards facilitating citizen participation in national and local issues. Last month, Civis conducted an online and offline survey to gather feedback on areas they think Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) should prioritise while…

The Mumbai Development Plan (DP), a statutory document which lists policies and proposals for land-use in an area, has undergone a tumultuous journey. First proposed in 2015, it was scrapped owing to a number of serious flaws, and a new committee was set up. Around the same time, women in the city started to raise clamour for how the development plan needs to pay attention to gender and recognise that women and men experience cities differently.  Led by the Akshara Centre, a non-profit working for women's rights, the activists advocated for a chapter on gender in the DP. But what got…

Unlike the centre and state budgets, there's little discussion on municipal budgets in India. Multiple media reports highlight that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is India's richest municipal corporation with a budget higher than most states. But there's little awareness on what the budget entails, how BMC earns or spends its money, and how can a citizen keep track of its revenue or expenditure. Here's a look at some of its core features before BMC presents its 2021-22 budget. Who prepares the budget? Budgets at the centre and state are prepared and presented by the respective Finance Ministers. But the…