Articles by Shobana Radhakrishnan

Shakari R had to take a private bus from Chennai to Bengaluru on a Saturday night. While she was on her way to the bus terminus along with her friend in a two-wheeler, they met with an accident on a road near Koyambedu market and bus stand. “There was a big pothole on the road and it was not visible in the dark,” she says. As soon as they fell from the bike, people gathered around them to help. But, no one was aware of where to go when such a medical emergency occurs at the Koyambedu bus stand. Shankari…

Very often, when we speak about the pollution caused by the industries in North Chennai, we tend to limit it as a 'North Chennai' problem. Is it really so? Does it have no impact on the other parts of Chennai? Several reports including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report and Greater Chennai Corporation's Chennai Climate Action Plan point out that Chennai will experience extreme impact due to climate change. Meanwhile, development projects like ports, Thermal Tower Plants, and other industries that create a huge impact on land, water and air are being planned and proposed in addition to…

Ramalingam*, a sexagenarian, was travelling alone from Madurai to Chennai on a Sunday morning and reached the Egmore railway station. As he was walking on the foot-over-bridge to take the metro rail, he went into a sudden cardiac arrest. While the public tried to help him and dial 108 ambulance service, not many were aware of the emergency medical centre inside the station's premises that is exclusively meant for attending to medical emergency cases in Chennai Egmore railway station. A railway staff noticed the crowd and intimated the medical staff at the centre. A female and a male nurse immediately…

For Sowndharya Gopi, a trans person who grew up in the housing unit of the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board (TNUHDB) in Royapuram, those tenements constituted the centre of her life.  "I have faced discrimination for being a trans person all my life but the people in those housing units, who were my kith and kin, were the first among the few people who accepted me for who I am," says Sowndharya. Recalling the days of her family moving from the thatched huts to the housing unit, Sowndharya says that as many as 240 families living in the nearby…

"Plastic found in the stomach of fish" read a recent, alarming headline. The increasing instance of such findings shows how the issue of marine litter poses a growing threat to marine biodiversity and the health of human beings, as marine litter in its various forms makes its way into the food chain. A study conducted by the Tamil Nadu government found that people living around 19 estuaries in the state, including those around Ennore Creek, Cooum and Adyar estuary, could be ingesting microplastics by including fish in their diet. A total of 23 polymers were identified across all the estuaries.…

"In the past three weeks, my schedule has completely collapsed due to the frequent power cuts in Chennai," says Nandhini R, a working mother to a two-year-old. She walks to and fro on the dark balcony at 3 am, patting her daughter, waiting for her to go to sleep. Nandhini can only hope to get a few hours of rest before she begins her day at 5.30 am. Her husband, an IT professional who works the night shift from home, also finds his work affected by the power outage. "We have been facing frequent unscheduled power outages amidst the soaring…

"If I have to come from Alandur to Koyambedu by road, it takes me over 50 minutes. But, if I take the Metro in Chennai, it hardly takes me 12 to 15 minutes, including the wait time for the train," says Shankar, a regular commuter on the Chennai Metro. Clearly, for people like Shankar, the Metro has spelt significant easing of commute. With work on Phase II underway in many parts of the city, it is only likely that more passengers will embrace this mode of transport in the days to come. The upcoming lines will link the IT corridor,…

“I want to dance with my daughter, take Marble (pet dog) for a walk, go on a second honeymoon with my husband, travel alone and just go out and buy something for myself.” These are the wishes of Swarnalatha, a young woman who has been struggling with a rare disease called Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis for the past 14 years in India. Swarnalatha has been bound to a wheelchair for all these years. While there is no cure for the disease, her dream to do something as simple as dancing with her daughter keeps her going. When Swarnalatha was diagnosed…

As Ramanan S tears down a political wall poster from the compound wall of his house in Chennai’s Tiruvottriyur he frustratedly says, “This has turned to a huge menace now. It is clearly written here not to paste posters and I wonder why people keep doing this.” He has had to remove wall posters despite painting his wall with a ‘stick no bills’ sign, He points out that the number of posters from the ruling party has increased over time that the party cadres in the locality not only stick them on the public walls but also stick them on…

In 2000, as many as 96 families who had been homeless and residing on footpaths in and around Chintadripet were provided with a new lease of life under the Permanent Shelter Scheme of the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO). But two decades on, the families residing in the Ritchie Street Home for Homeless Cooperative Housing Society find themselves in varying degrees of debt and uninhabitable living conditions.  What were the promises made to the families on resettlement? Where did the project fail? Debt owed by families in Ritchie Street housing The 96 resettled families were provided with one-room flats…