Articles by Revathi Siva Kumar

As wintry Bangalore closed in on her, Sheila (name changed) began to plan her daughter’s marriage. But her husband, from whom she had escaped after 20 years of a violent, abusive marriage in Pune, threatened to descend on her and kill both her as well as their daughter. In fear, Sheila almost called off the marriage, but it was a nearby doctor (who wishes to remain anonymous) who helped to stop her. “Don’t cow down. Connect with me, with your neighbours, with the SHO of the nearby police station and be prepared to fight your husband with all of us…

After many promises of suburban rail system for Bengaluru, the central government has finally introduced two new routes for suburban rails within Bengaluru and has introduced eight new trains to travel in these routes. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal made the formal announcement on March 9, 2018. Close on the heels of this, the new trains were introduced on March 12th. Out of the eight trains, four are running between Hosur and Banaswadi, and two each on Byappanahalli-Whitefield and Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna (Majestic)-Byappanahalli routes. This has been considered as a relief to workers in the technology sector, and will be on…

On Sunday, March 11th, a wave of 50,000 red-flag-waving farmers washed over Mumbai, the nation’s commercial hub. The 200-km march over six days not only highlighted the schizophrenic divide between urban India and rural Bharat, but also seemed to ring a wake-up call of sorts across the nation. Mumbai was tense as the scene was set for a communication flashpoint between both groups. The farmers under the All India Kisan Sangharsh Committee (AIKS), however, had already won the hearts of the ordinary Mumbaikar. They thoughtfully walked at night to spare exam-writing schoolchildren. Mumbai residents responded with flowers, food and footwear, as…

Pictures of the smoke-ridden Indian capital city with its choking pollution levels and roads chock-a-block with vehicles are the stuff of front page news every other day, but now Delhi's new parking policy approved by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal is expected to jointly address both the congestion and the pollution to some extent. The Parking Management Area Plan (PMAP), which came into effect in the last week of February, proposes a number of variable charges for residential and commercial areas; these charges are envisioned to impact the demand for parking space in Delhi, and in turn influence the usage of personal vehicles. However,…

Activists and citizens in Bengaluru are incensed that the government just dissolved the Karnataka Lake Conservation and Development Authority (KLCDA) without even a discussion in the assembly, on March 1, 2018. The Legislative Assembly quietly passed the Tank Development Act when the members were not even present in full strength. It came as a surprise, nay shock, that the lakes needed to be handed over to the Minor Irrigation Department (MID), rather than the environment ministry, which it is intended for. The act is expected to come into effect in the next three months. A KLCDA official says that he…

Do today’s modern marathon races generate a lot of the garbage and pollution that they are geared to fight? That is the question floated by a new campaign,  ‘Green the Mumbai Marathon’ started by Shilpi Sahu, a Bengaluru-based green activist who has been participating in races for almost six to seven years. She confirms that every race leads to a huge pile-up of plastic bottles, plates and tetra packs that have been used to serve water and food to runners and volunteers. With about 20,000 to 40,000 runners dumping plastic waste into lakes or nearby parks and crowding available spaces, a…

Even as the gentle city of soft, light breezes, namma Bengaluru, is getting gritty with particulate matter, there seems to be a disconnect between the citizen and the data. What exactly is blowing around? Is it possible to sense and detect the quality of air? How does Bangalore rate in the Air Quality Index (AQI)? Not too good. It has been found that the biggest air pollutant in the city is particulate matter (PM), specifically PM10 and PM2.5. These are tiny, irritant suspensions in the air that tend to enter and cause respiratory and even cardiovascular diseases. In 2015, Greenpeace…

Long before television, it was the radio that caught your ear and put it to the ground of the world. Never mind if it was a word, a note or even just a sound byte that floated into your mind. It chimed around in your head and drove home special, or even just informal, messages.   The celebration of the legacy and experience of that special wonder gadget, then, resonated with the diverse audiences at The Radio Festival (TRF), hosted by the International Association of Women in Radio and Television, partnering with UNESCO on February 15th, 2018, at New Delhi.…

The dream of having electric vehicles on the roads of Bengaluru came a bit closer to reality in the recent years. The city is slowly but surely moving towards electric vehicles. The recent push is the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) putting out a tender for private companies to add electric buses to the diesel fleet. Last date for submitting bids is February 19, 2018. BMTC to procure electric buses According to Ashwin Mahesh, an urbanist and social technologist, the production of electric vehicles is quite a challenge, and will take time to stabilise. As the design, strategising and building…

The spate of horrific news from schools across the country does not seem to subside. The most recent incident, of course, is the mysterious death of a Class 9 student in the school toilet in northeast Delhi's Karawal Nagar. It is suspected that the teen died of internal injuries resulting from assault by a group of friends. Earlier this year in Lucknow, Hrithik Sharma, a Class 1 student, was stabbed on the back, chest and left eye by a girl in Class 7, in anticipation of a holiday that the school would inevitably declare in the wake of such a…