Articles by Sabah Virani

As summer vacations come to a close, parents are eagerly awaiting the start of a normal school year after the past two filled with disruptions. COVID-19 has meant a sea of changes to education in Mumbai, and this school year will be the chance for parents and teachers to adapt and recover. The experience, however, has not been equal across the board. Migrants and low-income families that faced job losses often did not have the tools to seamlessly adapt to online education, and in many cases, could not afford to keep paying the school fees. And while middle and high-income…

The onset of Mumbai's monsoon is loaded with a lot of speculation. Its arrival is forecasted as the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) tracks the seasons’ advance from the south. The forecast also indicates the quantity of rainfall expected across the months of June-September, leaving aside the rainfall pattern, which is harder to predict in advance. Mumbai receives an average 2,500 mm of rainfall in the monsoon months. The city depends on this rain to fill the lakes that supply water for the year. And while this year, Maharashtra expects to surpass its average by 6%, the focus will ultimately be…

On April 24th, the popular account @RoadsOfMumbai held a poll on Twitter asking a simple question, ‘Will wrong-side driving ever end in Mumbai?’ The response was overwhelmingly negative; over 80% of respondents believed they would just have to live with it. The poll came nearly two months after the Mumbai police started a crackdown on traffic violations and road obstructions. They were particularly targeting offences of driving on the wrong side of the road and parking of defunct vehicles, ‘khataras,’ on the road. From March 6th to May 15th, the police claimed to have registered 12,390 wrong-side driving cases and…

With school admissions in Mumbai for the new academic year in full swing, parents from different socio-economic backgrounds are scrambling to secure seats for their children in the best schools. The opportunities for those from financially and socially disadvantaged backgrounds, however, are not equal. This is where the Right to Education (RTE) Act was supposed to come in - allowing more children a chance at equal education. Introduced in 2009, Section 12 (1)(C) of the Act mandates 25% reservations in private, unaided, non-minority schools for those from disadvantaged backgrounds and economically weaker sections. This includes students with disabilities, those from…

Private and green sewage treatment plants (STP) are slowly gaining prominence. With the growing threat of water scarcity, climate change and pollution, Mumbai is grappling for ways to meet current and future demands of water in the city, and one avenue that has emerged is recycling the water from sewage treatment plants (STP). They treat wastewater at the source and replace as much as half the water requirement of a housing society. How much fresh water is wasted daily for activities that can be carried out using recycled water?" asks Prasad Khale, senior conservation officer at the NGO Conservation Action…

Article 21 of the Constitution is interpreted as the right to safe drinking water for all citizens, even as Mumbai residents have struggled with an unequal and unreliable water supply. But from May 1st, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) has started to change this with its new water policy. BMC’s new ‘water for all’ policy will ensure all residents - including illegal, informal settlements, buildings without occupation certificates (OC) and pavement dwellers - are eligible for water connections. An estimated 2 million+ people in 150 slums do not have access to adequate water, and 50% of buildings (over 50,000) in…

Mumbai has had a rough start to the summer. Along with the rest of the country, a heat wave in the city began in March, as the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) Santacruz observatory recorded a temperature of 39.4 degrees Celsius (°C). A lack of pre-monsoon showers and warm, dry winds from northwest India have been the causes, driven by climate change. Another three heat waves followed, when the peak season for them, May, is yet to pass. The high minimum and maximum temperatures have meant that the city has spent the majority of the two months without any respite. This…

For years now, Mumbaikars have travelled on roads through barricades exclaiming, "Mumbai is upgrading." After 8 years of waiting, the city finally witnessed the results of metro construction that revealed itself on April 2nd, with the launch of the metro lines 2A and 7, between Dahisar and DN Nagar and Dahisar and Andheri East respectively. By the end of 2025, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has promised a 200 km long network of the Mumbai metro. Across the north-south and east-west axis, Line 2A, 2B, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 9 are expected to carry millions of commuters…

On the occasion of Gudi Padwa on April 2nd, two new Mumbai metro lines - Line 2A and 7 - made their debut. They interconnect at Dahisar and parallelly extend into the suburbs: to DN Nagar in Andheri West and Andheri East respectively. The two yellow and red lines were first proposed and approved in 2015. Construction started in 2016 with a deadline of 2019, and yet, only Phase 1 of the lines is operational today, cutting the journey short to Dahanukarwadi, Kandivali on Line 2A and Aarey, Goregaon on Line 7. The remainder will launch as Phase 2 in…

April 2nd was a big day for Mumbai. After 8 long years, the blue line of Mumbai's metro was getting 2 new additions: the yellow Line 2A and red Line 7. On the shared Dahisar metro station, Line 2A left to Dahanukarwadi, Kandivali. Parallely, the metro on Line 7 left for Aarey in Goregaon, covering the extent of Phase 1. With the upcoming Phase 2, the 18.5 km and 16.5 km long lines will travel 30 stations bewteen them, connecting DN Nagar, Andheri West and Andheri East on the older Line 1. The lines are a clear rival for the…