Articles by Shobana Radhakrishnan

In August this year, an eight-year-old girl died by drowning in the swimming pool of an apartment complex in Ambattur. This is not an isolated incident. According to recent data from the National Crime Records Bureau, 9.3% of accidental deaths in India (36,362 deaths) were caused by drowning in 2021. Metropolitan cities like Chennai have many swimming pools, including those in apartment complexes. However, many of them do not comply with basic safety protocols, leading to accidental drownings. The role of the authorities at present is limited to granting permissions with the promise of conducting periodic checks. The onus of…

Each suicide is a personal tragedy that prematurely claims the life of an individual and has a continuing ripple effect, affecting the lives of families, friends and communities. Every year, more than one lakh deaths by suicide are recorded in India. A total of 1,64,033 suicides were recorded in 2021 alone. The recent data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) highlights that Chennai stands second among the metropolitan cities in the country with an alarmingly high number of suicides in 2021. The data shows that Tamil Nadu stands second among the states with highest number of suicides in…

"Many people from villages across Tamil Nadu came to Chennai to make a living. They moved here with the hope of improving the standard of living for their families and providing good education to their children. These people, who migrated in small groups from rural parts, eventually settled along the banks of rivers or water bodies. They built small huts to reside. The huts were prone to catching fire suddenly at any time and so the area came to be called Thideer Nagar," says S Kathirvelan, a 60-year-old resident of Thideer Nagar in Saidapet. But L Vijaya, a resident of…

With the outbreak of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdowns, schools in Chennai run by the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) saw record high enrolment of new students. Across the 281 schools run by the civic body in the city, the total number of students increased from 90,394 in 2020-21 to 1,13,793 in 2021-2022, a 10-year high in enrolment. Many of these students moved from private schools to GCC-run schools in the middle of the pandemic. Loss of jobs for parents during the lockdown, the government declaring 'all pass' for all class students, and private schools demanding the same fee even for…

Pullapuram has been home to around 1,000 residents for over five decades now. Now, recent developments in the area have created serious difficulties for them in accessing basic civic amenities. Developments that have arisen due to an ongoing friction with the residents of the nearby Tamil Nadu Police Housing Board Quarters. Years of peace no more Pullapuram is located adjacent to the Police Housing Board Quarters on Poonamallee High Road in Chetpet. The locality has eight streets with over 320 houses. Most of the residents here are involved in manual labour such as conservancy work with the Greater Chennai Corporation…

During the inaugural speech of the 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Chennai, Chief Minister Stalin noted that of the 73 Indian grandmasters, 26 were from Tamil Nadu. “That means 36% of Indian grandmasters are from Tamil Nadu. It is a game of intelligence and mathematics and Chennai can be rightly called the chess capital of India,” he said. But while cricket and chess are held in high regard in the state, with the necessary conditions for success, a look at other sports in the city presents a sorry picture. The impact of COVID-19 and the absence of support has hampered…

The Tamil Nadu government increased property tax for all local bodies in the state earlier this April. This means that the residents of Chennai's core areas would have to pay at least 50% more than what they have been paying for over two decades. The Greater Chennai Corporation has as many as 13 lakh property tax assesses with an annual demand of Rs 800 crore. The revision came into effect from April 1, 2022 with an aim to increase the civic body's revenue generation capacity, which plays a critical role in providing better services and improving infrastructure. Here is an…

The public transport system in the city has seen a slew of developments in the past year ranging from the commencement of works for Phase 2 of the Chennai Metro project to free travel for women passengers in the ordinary buses of MTC. With the Metro’s presence in the city now close to a decade, how has the system integrated with the public transport landscape in the city? What are the issues that prevent more riders from taking to the Chennai Metro and is that likely to change with Phase 2? Is the bus system, which ferries more people, being…

The critically acclaimed movie Thappad evoked a wide range of responses to how the protagonist Amrita dealt with an instance of domestic violence, a slap by her husband in a social setting. While Amrita had the awareness to recognise the slap as domestic violence, the agency to decide for herself, financial support and a family who understood her decision, many women in Chennai, who face domestic violence, find themselves alone in this fight. The spate of crimes against women in cities like Chennai continues unabated. Now and then we read or hear of a new incident, more brazen, brutal and…

A lot has been happening with the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) of Chennai over the past year. The transport body has embraced technology for live tracking. The process of fleet expansion is also underway, along with the procurement of more e-buses. The 'free travel for women' scheme has been well-received and earned plaudits, in addition to increasing ridership among women. We present a round-up here of all such recent developments related to the city's most important mode of public commute, its bus service. Dedicated app and GPS tracking The much-awaited mobile application to track the movement of MTC buses in…