Articles by Navya P K

Migrant workers from Bihar wait at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre, only to be turned back by the BBMP after three days, in early May. Pic Credit: Senthil S Although construction activity in Bengaluru got a go-ahead, Ramachandra returned to his family in Bihar during that brief window when the government ran trains for migrant workers. He had started work at a construction site six months ago. His new home was in a labour camp in Ulsoor, with 400 other workers. Though he had worked through March, he was not paid. The contractor said the builder had not paid him.…

The whole country is in lockdown in the hope of containing coronavirus. But as WHO has warned, lockdowns alone aren’t enough to tackle the pandemic. A critical step in containing coronavirus is contact tracing -- identifying anyone who came in contact with an infected person, quarantining and monitoring them. But in many of our cities, particularly in north India, contact tracing has been poor or even non-existent. Besides, there’s been large scale and blatant violations of the Central guidelines on mandatory quarantine of those who have returned from abroad. The worst offender is perhaps Bhopal, which doesn’t seem to have…

Supplying clothing to some of the major global brands, many garment factories have been paying a pittance to their workers. On May Day, Bengaluru’s garment factory workers, 90 percent of whom are women, demanded that companies pay them arrears as per the state government’s draft notification on wage hike last year. Hundreds of workers, mostly women marched from Kanteerava Stadium to Peenya, demanding action on issues ranging from poor pay, to working conditions to safety. The women held the protest under the banner of the Garment Labour Union (GLU). The union says that the companies in Bengaluru owe Rs 1862…

This Saturday, representatives of over 50 large apartments in Bellandur ward of Mahadevpura constituency met their MLA Aravind Limbavali, demanding a solution to their water woes. Majority of these apartments, located within the 110 villages that became part of BBMP a decade ago, have no BWSSB connections yet. The few who do have BWSSB connections, mostly on the Outer Ring Road side, get erratic supply. Their borewells have dried up, and they are paying cutthroat amounts to private tankers to fulfil their minimum water requirements. Even then, they don’t have enough water. BBMP asked to supply water, reign in private…

BMTC has launched three new bus routes along the IT corridor, to service Sarjapur Road neighbourhoods. In a mini function today, MLA NA Haris, MLC Rizwan Arshad and Bellandur corporator Asha Suresh flagged off the new service. Two of the routes run in a loop to Electronic City - one in clockwise and the other in anti-clockwise direction - covering neighbourhoods like Kasavanahalli, Doddakannalli, Haralur and HSR Layout. The third route runs in a loop to Carmelaram Railway Station, covering Doddakannalli, Kadubisanahalli, Bellandur Gate and Kaikondrahalli. Residents along Sarjapur Road have been demanding BMTC services to these areas. The Kasavanahalli…

A private car should ideally carry four to five people. But a recent survey in Udyog Vihar Industrial Area in Gurugram showed that it carries only 1.6 persons on average. The survey was conducted by the IT company Nagarro among over 2600 of its own employees. Among the survey respondents, 42 percent were using private cars to come to office, contributing to the infamous congestion in the city. The majority of them did not carpool. A quarter of the car users sometimes parked their cars on the street next to office, which could also congest the road. Another 19 percent…

Sushil was attending 10th standard at the school in his village, when his parents decided to move to a city. They had found seasonal work in a brick kiln there. Sushil’s only option was to move to the kiln site and work alongside his parents. He had given up hopes of completing high school education, when he realised that other child labourers at the kiln were going to a ‘classroom’ located within the site. This learning centre was set up by Aide et Action, an NGO that works for the education of migrant children. Sushil attended classes there, and later,…

This article is supported by SVP Cities of India Fellowship An ambulance on the ready, a medical centre with a doctor and two nurses visiting on alternate days, home healthcare services for those who need it - these are some of the medical facilities at Athashri, a retirement community in Whitefield, Bengaluru. Athashri, a retirement home for senior citizens aged above 65 years, has good medical facilities, says H Kishore, president of the resident welfare association here. The apartment has 118 units, of which nearly 80 are occupied currently. About 15 residents here are availing the home services of care…

This article is supported by SVP Cities of India Fellowship When 80-year-old Rukmini Amma fell and broke her leg at her home in Rajajinagar, her husband, 86-year-old Srikantan, called their neighbours for help. Neighbours helped Rukmini Amma get admitted to hospital, and informed her son who lives in Pune, and daughter who’s in Canada. Both rushed home, and helped her get the best treatment and surgery, and brought her back home. When it was time for them to go back, they weighed their options. Finally they brought a new person home - 55-year-old Kuppamma, a trained geriatric care personnel, who…

This article is supported by SVP Cities of India Fellowship When 78-year-old Shyamala (name changed) had a heart attack in the middle of the night, there was no one around to help. Shyamala was widowed, and had no children. “She was wailing from pain all night, but no one heard her. At around 5 am, neighbours came over, and Shyamala had to crawl up to the door to open it,” says Shyamala’s former neighbour G Ramachandra. Shyamala’s condition was critical, and the neighbours took her to a hospital where she was operated on. But afterwards, Shyamala was worried of living…