Articles by Satarupa Sen Bhattacharya

As I write this, there is a rapid and continuous swell in protests and rallies being organised to demand justice for the 31-year-old junior doctor brutally raped and murdered in Kolkata’s R G Kar Medical College and Hospital. Also rising in numbers and volume are the indignant voices demanding answers from the state of West Bengal on the many inconsistencies and procedural lapses following the incident. The crime committed during the wee hours of August 9th invokes memories of another similar incident on the streets of the national capital in December 2012, now infamous as the ‘Nirbhaya incident’. But several…

Days come and days go. And as I write this, we are on the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies, commemorated by the UN annually on September 7th. What this observance wants to achieve is of course pretty transparent and specific from the name itself. Sadly though, in our cities in particular, we seem to be quite far from that goal. Clean air is a luxury, blue skies a rare treat. This year’s observance comes close on the heels of the latest Air Quality Life Index report from the Energy Policy Institute, University of Chicago (EPIC), which says…

Some make headlines and cause nationwide furore (especially when a celebrity is involved). Some make it to the news, but as just another statistic without attracting public attention in any measure. While many, many more go unreported, often deliberately brushed under the carpet. All of these, silently or otherwise, add to India’s alarming record of the number of deaths by suicide. The reported numbers for this was 1.64 lakh in the year 2021 alone, though experts say that the real numbers are much higher. But despite the evident crisis that the country faces, suicide prevention rarely receives the systemic focus…

The COVID pandemic has certainly raised the focus and discourse around issues of mental health among various groups and subgroups of the urban population in India. However, large sections of our urban population still remain beyond the ambit of these discussions and more importantly, out of reach of any form of mental health care services.  In an earlier report from Chennai, we saw how lack of affordability, social stigma and other issues deter the urban poor from seeking support for mental health issues. But there are pockets where people are not even aware, or conscious of the possibility of seeking…

Even as we write this, the blaze at Delhi's Bhalswa waste dump — a colossal mountain of unsorted and unsegregated waste in the national capital — continues to thwart the efforts of the Delhi Fire Services personnel as they fight the flames raging since April 26th. Of course, such fires at waste dump sites are not uncommon; this is already the third such incident this summer after earlier outbreaks at the Ghazipur landfill site. Methane gas emissions during decomposition of the dumped waste in unaerobic conditions, combined with high air temperatures, make these sites veritable tinderboxes. Sometimes, reckless or deliberate…

In the first part of our conversation with Dr Anant Bhan, Bhopal-based researcher in Global Health, Bioethics, and Health Policy, we asked him some of the common questions that citizens are grappling with today in the face of a stark vaccine shortage, coupled with frequent changes in policy. Continuing the conversation, we look at the overall data sufficiency on vaccines, the disease itself and its overall implication for the management of the pandemic. Edited excerpts below; for the entire unabridged conversation, scroll down to find the video link: Veering to the big picture, just weeks back, we had hundreds of…

The second, brutal wave of the pandemic in India has brought us face to face with tragedies and horrors that we probably never even encountered in the most fearsome of our nightmares. The intensity and surge in numbers is one thing, but what has left us most anguished and horrified is the unpreparedness of our governance, the dire straits of a neglected public health care system and the consequent stripping of dignity and rights of citizens — in life, illness and even death. And even as we live this dystopian reality, we are constantly battling another huge fight — the…

For Santhana Selvan, an IT professional, cycling began as a part time hobby, just a few trips to nearby destinations to run errands. From those days to the beginning of April 2021, when he took over as the Bicycle Mayor of Hyderabad, it has been a long journey. One in which he has evolved from just another enthusiastic biker to one who feels deeply about the need to spread the culture and practice of cycling among a much larger section of people.  The challenges in a city like Hyderabad, where the conditions are not particularly amenable, are vast. But in…

We are nearing the end of a year that none of us ever imagined we’d have to live through. So much of what we practiced, what we believed to be ‘normal’, has proved to be as vulnerable as a reed in a storm. Our lives have changed radically and so have our festivals, with restrictions galore on traditional customs, rituals and celebrations. But surely, we do not need COVID to tell us that we ought to move away from celebrations with firecrackers?  Yes, the coronavirus has indeed made that move much more pressing, creating as it does a lethal mix…

Atithi Devo Bhava – the guest is God! While it is cited ad nauseam in both academic and popular conversations on Indian culture, never does the concept become as real and palpable as when important heads of state visit us. Cities are decked up like a bride on her wedding day; streets get cleaned, riverfronts along the route are beautified, walls and facades are decorated with paintings depicting the culture of the two countries…and so on. We have seen it in Varanasi ahead of the 2015 meet between Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and Narendra Modi, or when the French President…