Articles by Prachi Pinglay-Plumber

Ranjitha R and Varun Madhugiri, parents to three and a half-year-old twins, recall with wry humour what it has been like since the first lockdown was announced in March 2020. The daycare centre the twins went to, closed. For this working couple, the next year and a half was about juggling work, domestic chores, parenting, teaching and managing the pandemic. They have now come to accept the new normal, albeit reluctantly. There are good days and bad days, but there is no rhythm to it. Like all parents, they are noticing behavioural challenges with their children, besides their own rising…

Ketan Kothari, his wife and his neighbour, are visually-impaired and above 45 years of age. When they tried to approach various centres for vaccination in western suburbs of Mumbai, they ended up going to three centres and got turned down for various reasons. The centres were too crowded with high risk of contracting the infection, no special facility for people with disabilities or simply did not have vaccines. Kothari is one of thousands of disabled/specially-abled people, who are facing a number of difficulties while coping with the pandemic and now with vaccination. From accessing the web portals for registrations to…

Donna Fernandes, founder of Vimochana, an NGO that works for women’s rights, is harried for the past few weeks. She's been trying and get a shelter, ration and compensation for a victim of domestic violence. Working in this field for forty years, she finds that the issues that plague society and affect women victims, remain unchanged. Like `the more things change, the more they don’t'. Take for instance, the Nirbhaya Fund, set up by the Central government after the December 16, 2012 gang rape in Delhi. The fund was to help survivors of violence and improve infrastructure to support women…

Gayatri is pursuing her Masters in Law at the University Law College in Bengaluru. After finishing her graduation, she thought that doing a masters degree would help her job prospects and career. Coming from a family of daily wage labourers, Gayatri wanted to uplift her three siblings too. Covid-19 arrived, affecting her in more ways than one. To start with, she hasn’t been able to pay her fees of Rs. 46,250. Unsure of whether to ask for funds from public donors, she shared her problem with a few student activists. Gayatri is not alone. Several students in the city --…

The Covid-19 pandemic and various levels of lockdown has affected us in many different ways; from livelihoods, education and mobility, to mental health. Confined physically and mentally for months, there is one common thing that everyone longs for – open spaces that can be freely accessed. On that claustrophobic backdrop, any decision that makes this a reality, was going to be welcome.  So, making Church Street a vehicle-free zone for a certain number of days in a month was a happy development for Bengaluru. The hope is that this weekend experiment will reduce pollution, encourage walking and use electric vehicles. …

How many of us consider approaching the consumer court for a faulty piece of electronics, for an insurance claim that’s not honoured or for services like warranty and maintenance contracts that are promised but not provided? What happens when you do? How long do you wait? And how many of us succeed? The idea and intention behind setting up Consumer Dispute Redressal Commissions was to ensure swift and cost-effective access to justice to us, the consumers. Though it serves this purpose (in comparison to having to fight consumer cases in other courts, where it would take longer), a report by…

Starting today, freedom fighter H S Doreswamy, aged 101 years, is to lead a satyagraha at the Town Hall from 11 am to 5 pm, for five days. The protest is against the central government's position on the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act), along with other issues such as economic slowdown and price rise. Kavitha Reddy, one of the organisers, says Doreswamy had submitted the application to the police seeking permission for the protest, weeks ago. "We got a call from the local police station yesterday, and they collected all details of the protest." She says that the police didn't mention…

Vasudev Sharma, Executive Director of the NGO Child Rights Trust (CRT), who has overseen the growth of the child helpline 1098 in Bengaluru, has an anecdote about its reach. Once, his team members saw a family at Patna railway station with a child who looked as if he didn’t belong. They called Sharma, and he organised help from Patna’s 1098 team. The boy was rescued and reunited with his own family, and was not forced into child labour. That's just one example of how Childline can play a decisive role in the rescue of vulnerable children. Currently, 1098 is the…