Articles by Navya P K

I H Sekar, a fisherman and environmentalist living near Pallikaranai marsh land in Chennai, is awaiting judgement for a case he filed a year back, to protect the marsh from yet another encroachment. This is the third case that he has filed so far on the marsh. This time the encroachment has been by the government itself, to build an RTO office which will be a dump yard for vehicles. The Pallikaranai marsh used to be spread across 6000 hectares some 50 years back, but only 600-odd hectares remain now. It’s the biggest remaining wetland in Chennai, where destruction of…

A Google Earth image shows piling up of traffic coming from North Bengaluru, in front of Palace Grounds. The State government has budged to the public demand and has put the tender process related to the proposed controversial steel flyover on hold. According to news reports, tender process was in the final stages of being awarded. Following a meeting with many urban experts from the city, Bengaluru Development Minister K J George told media that the government will hold public consultations with civic groups before finalising the project. The six-lane steel flyover, 6.7 kms long and costing Rs 1350 crores,…

Citizen Matters had earlier reported that dengue cases in Bengaluru are severely under-reported, that the official dengue figures are only a fraction of the actual numbers. But when it comes to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, heart diseases, respiratory diseases etc., the situation is worse - these diseases are not tracked at all in the city. NCDs are now emerging as the leading cause of deaths in India, since communicable diseases like malaria and TB are under better control. But in Bengaluru, like in the rest of the country, no one is tracking them. Without data on these diseases, policy-making…

Pic: Mayur Channagere If you are someone who rides a bike for more than four hours in Bengaluru every day, there’s a significant chance that you will develop Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). COPD, which makes breathing difficult, is a leading cause of disability and death globally; it is irreversible and worsens over time. The conclusion is from a study on 100 non-smokers in Bengaluru aged 25-40 years, who commute to work by bike. Given the worsening traffic jams in the city, the number of people riding bikes for over four hours per day could be quite high. But respiratory…

In the first part of the series Loans for poor in Bengaluru, we explored how the system of loan from informal sources with high interest rates is pushing the poor deeper into poverty. The second part explored the system of bank loans for poor, to see whether it benefits the poor who don’t have securities. In the third part, we examine how micro-finance institutions function, and what do poor people feel about it. Mariyal, a 33-year-old domestic worker living in Ejipura slum in Bengaluru, has taken a Micro Finance Institution (MFI) loan for the first time. She has borrowed Rs…

The first part of the series LOANS FOR URBAN POOR IN BENGALURU explained how the urban poor living in the slums of Bengaluru get trapped in the circle of borrowing, paying interest and re-borrowing. In this part, the author explores the reason behind the same—why banks do not help the poor—how complicated the process is. Sunil, a slum dweller in Swatantrapalya, wants to buy an auto. He needs a loan badly. Not keen on lending money from local moneylenders for extra interest, he wants to secure a bank loan. However, he doesn’t have any collateral security to offer to the…

Alamelu works in one of the flats in a nearby apartment complex. After returning to her home in Swatantrapalya, she prepares incense sticks. Pics: Shree D N Sitting on the floor in her two-room house in Ragigudda EWS quarters, Rajeshwari N, a domestic worker and mother of two, says that she hopes to leave the locality within next two-three years. She has borrowed over Rs 2 lakh to pay the Slum Board for house allotment and to pay off her relatives who wanted to stake claim to the house. Rajeshwari has been living in the area–which was Ragigudda slum earlier–for…

Balraj J applied for the birth certificate of his daughter in April 2013, but he had to wait for more than 90 days before he could get it. He needed the birth certificate urgently, in order to apply for the Bhagyalakshmi Scheme (launched by the government to promote birth of girl child in Below Poverty Line families.) He says, "My daughter was born in Avhieta Hospital, Hennur Bagalur Main Road. But, we were not guided regarding the process of applying for a Birth Certificate in the hospital. When I approached the concerned department at the BBMP office in Kothanur, I…

Members of the Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) voiced concerns about the term ‘encroachers’ being used to describe Ejipura evictees. To prove that they are not encroachers but original allottees, they shared documents of property rights of the evictees, at a press conference held on 9 July 2013. PUCL, in association with Housing and Land Rights Network, another international NGO focussing on housing for poor, also released a report titled ‘Governance by denial,’ which analyses the related events before and after the eviction. Ramadas Rao, a member of PUCL, said the allegations of MLA N A Haris that evictees…

Rajesh (name changed), one of the founder members of NGEF Housing Society, was in for a shock when he realised that he himself was not going to get a site in NGEF Layout, Mallathahalli. Rajesh had paid for a 40X60 site, but when he tried to get a khata, he was told that the site did not exist in the approved plan. It was instead part of the original land owner’s share. It was after a long legal battle that he was finally allotted a site. Many buyers are often not as lucky. Many have lost their money to House…