Articles by Shobana Radhakrishnan

After 45-year-old Shanthi S was evicted from her home in Suryanagar and moved to the resettlement site in Perumbakkam, one of her biggest concerns was making ends meet after losing her job. A single parent with two children, Shanthi worked as a domestic help in and around Kotturpuram before being resettled. Travelling back to work was not an option as she couldn't leave her kids home alone all day. The loss of livelihood has been a significant issue for residents of resettlement sites like Shanthi since 2017. This problem is considered a primary cause of the rising incidents of domestic…

Coming from a family of politicians, it was a natural decision for JK Manikandan, the councillor of Ward 186 in Chennai, to choose a career in politics. His father PA Jayachandran has been in the public domain for almost four decades and this paved the way for Manikandan's political journey. In 2006, when Ullagaram was a municipality, his father won as the President, while Manikandan became the Vice President. Back then, he was part of the AIADMK. After the death of the then AIADMK supremo, J Jayalalithaa, Manikandan joined DMK. He was given a ticket to contest in the urban…

The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) implemented the Solid Waste Management Rules in 2016. The following year, it passed directions for bulk waste generators (including apartment complexes and gated communities) in Chennai to process their waste inside their premises. "Seven years down the line, very few bulk waste generators in Chennai are following the norms," points out P Natarajan, Founder of Namma Ooru Foundation in our earlier article. KGEYES Homes in Chennai's Besant Nagar is a 25-year-old residential complex with 36 dwelling units. Similar to many other apartment complexes in the neighbourhood, residents here did not adhere to the waste management…

Chennai was one of the first cities in India to get selected under the Smart City Mission. The objective of the ambitious Central Government programme was to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens; a clean and sustainable environment and application of ‘smart’ solutions. But, the benefits of the programme for Chennai residents have been limited. While projects like the bicycle lanes and vertical gardens were a failure, the multi-level parking scheme remains underutilised. In April this year, when we spoke to a few experts on the Smart City projects implemented…

Chennai generates as much as 6,300 metric tonnes of garbage every day. Of this, 60% of the waste is biodegradable — which means that if we segregate the waste properly at source this 60% could be prevented from going to the landfills and eventually turning into legacy waste. Like any other metro city, Chennai also faces many challenges in the management of solid waste. The first part of this series delved into the challenges that Chennai faces in segregating waste at source. In the second part, Dr J Radhakrishnan, Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner, talks to Citizen Matters about various issues…

Vasanthi Kannan resides in a Kodambakkam apartment complex with eight units. She has spent nearly three decades as a civic activist, tirelessly advocating for household waste segregation. Despite her efforts, she remains the sole resident in her building, who segregates waste, before handing it over to the sanitation workers. In Pulianthope, a locality with 2,000 households, adherence was the issue. "The government distributed two bins to every household in 2020 and asked the residents to segregate the waste before handing it to sanitation workers. Initially, there was some compliance, but without strict enforcement, the initiative failed," says Selavaraj M, Founder…

Through the month of June, we had a sort of extended celebration of World Environment Day (June 5th) by highlighting organisations and collectives that are actively trying to make a change. In case you missed their stories on our social media channels, here's another hat tip to these changemakers, who are fighting to protect natural spaces and ensuring environmental justice in our increasingly chaotic, expanding cities. Nizhal, Chennai We start off in Chennai with Nizhal. Nizhal, which means shade in Tamil, is a non-profit organisation that promotes urban greening with a focus on indigenous tree species and biodiversity regeneration. The…

Stormwater drains in Chennai made headlines during the December 2023 floods. Many residents in areas that were waterlogged complained about their ineffectiveness. Since then, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) officials have maintained that they have identified inundated areas and constructed stormwater drains in those specific locations under various schemes. While most of the construction work is ongoing in North and South Chennai, GCC officials claim that the Integrated Stormwater Drain (ISWD) project is almost at a completion stage in North Chennai. Six months after the floods, we did a status check in parts of North Chennai and found that a…

It's been six months since Chennai endured a devastating flood. The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) claims heightened focus on completing stormwater drain (SWD) projects in the city. Notably, the lion’s share (Rs 1,321 crore) of the GCC budget was allocated for constructing stormwater drains in Chennai. The city currently has around 2,950 km of stormwater drains that can handle 2–5 cm of rainfall per hour. In a PTI report dated December 15, 2023, S Rajendiran, Chief Engineer at GCC pointed out that this is quite inadequate to handle heavy rains like the one Chennai faced in December last year. According…

This year has seen a scorching and extended summer all across the country. Tamil Nadu has been no different with the state capital, Chennai, recording 40.7 degrees Celsius in the peak of summer. As temperatures soared, the Greater Chennai Corporation issued an advisory, asking people not to step out of their homes between noon and 3 pm, and to cover their heads to protect themselves from the unbearable heat. Representative image: A food delivery worker during the pandemic. Pic: Nicholas Mirguet via Flickr But what if your job requires you to spend several hours out in the sun during peak…