Articles by Porag Shome

Mita (name changed) is here, there and everywhere, managing her shop alone in Salt Lake,  Kolkata as she juggles her spatula, pots, pans, paper plates, teacups, and  dish soap. In the midst of this apparent chaos, she does some deft mental arithmetic to calculate dues, and tells her customers, “The QR code is displayed there.” Mita is one among the wide cross section of the Indian population who have adopted United Payments Interface (UPI)—a real-time, cash-less and secure payment system. The National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) introduced UPI in 2016 to facilitate inter-bank transactions for peer-to-peer, or individual-to-merchant transactions.…

“No one likes to beg, people have started looking for other work; they will not continue to beg,” says a determined Tasvir, trying to mask the suffering and struggle of months and trying to find hope in the bleakest of situations. But does his community really have alternatives? Tasvir belongs to the ‘Pardhi’ tribe, members of which are scattered across Bhopal and its fringes. In an earlier article, we had described how the COVID-induced lockdown had brought them face to face with hunger and malnourishment, making them entirely dependent on the charity of civil society organisations. Deprived of their livelihoods and…

Ehsaan Nagar, Gandhi Nagar and Rajiv Nagar  -- three slums in and around Bhopal that are home to 288 families of the Bel-Pardhi, one of the 198 'denotified' tribes in India. Gandhinagar and Ehsaan Nagar came up in 2002 on the outskirts of Bhopal, whereas Rajivnagar is located well within the city limits. In the wake of the COVID-19 triggered lockdown, availability and access to food among these tribal families across these three slums, who lead a hand-to-mouth existence even during normal times, has emerged as an issue of great concern. Out of these 288 households, 50-60% have ration cards,…