Articles by Bhanutej N

Rahul K was waiting for a friend to pick him up from home that morning. He was heading for a job interview but did not seem to have the proverbial butterflies in his stomach. “I will attend, for whatever it is worth,” he said. The cynicism in his tone was unmissable….and way too much for a 21-year-old, I thought. Dressing up in formals and attending job interviews had become his daily routine ever since BBMP relaxed the nearly three-month-long lockdown, he said, speaking over a mobile phone that he shares with his mother. He has applied for dozens of jobs…

Trained and accustomed to catching criminals, maintaining law and order and regulating traffic, there is nothing in its experience or training that qualifies the police force to deal with a contagion like COVID-19. “Curfew” is perhaps the only term in the police vocabulary that comes close to defining what the doctors have prescribed: social distancing. Little wonder then, that the police went about addressing this social/humanitarian challenge with law-and-order tools. The results were there for all to see. Citizen Matters spoke to a former head of the Karnataka State Police, S T Ramesh, about the newest challenge before the police…

Finding that measures taken to control the spread of coronavirus in Bengaluru had hit the informal workforce the hardest, a group of workers’ unions has recommended a slew of urgent measures to be taken by the state government, beginning with a Rs 21,000 crore plan to provide relief to such workers. The recommendation follows a survey they undertook among garment workers, street vendors, pourakarmikas, hospital workers, construction workers and gig economy workers. The report recommends universal delivery of rations, serving cooked food on a daily basis, releasing Rs 14,000 for each household, prohibiting termination/retrenchment of employment, holding health camps and…

This article is part of a special series: Safety of women in Indian cities In any criminal act in which a woman is the target, the police is almost always in the best position to offer help, safety and reassurance to the aggrieved, besides investigating the crime and bringing the assailant to book. Clearly, this calls for a certain level of competence and professionalism, and a degree of empathy, patience and sensitivity towards women. Such qualities on the part of law-enforcers would be the criminal justice system’s most significant contribution towards empowering women and upholding their equal status.  Sadly however,…