City: Bengaluru

Send it back to where it came from... after it has been thoroughly segregated and composted, of course. We’re talking about sending the biomass part of the waste a city generates back to the soil. This would ensure the recycling of nutrients, creating closed economies as is the need of the hour, and virtually trigger off a positive domino effect. It remains a fact that we are a country with a rich history of recycling, the returning of nutrients in the way that the Karnataka State Agriculture Department is proposing plays to that history. The department has proposed that the…

G Padmavathi (56), a 4th time Congress corporator from Prakash Nagar ward, took charge as the 50th Mayor of Bengaluru in September 2016. She is the seventh woman to assume the coveted post. On a Wednesday at around 3 pm, she arrives at her chamber to make herself available for visitors. She is at her office after a long day of field visits and attending events across the city. A group of residents wait in a corner to invite the Mayor for an upcoming event. Meanwhile, a batch of auto drivers arrive at her office to submit a memorandum requesting…

Bengaluru has many NGOs working on social sectors, and HIV affected community is one of the sectors of focus. Leelavathi, the vice-president of Arunodaya NGO explains what NGOs are doing for HIV communities. She also talks about dealing with tuberculosis in HIV affected people, and the care to be taken, diagnosis, treatment, medication and related issues.

Food is something that connects easily with everyone. Manorama Joshi spreaks about Malnad cusine and their effort to get people in Bengaluru to sample their cusine during the Malnad Mela for the past 10 years.

On February 23rd, Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB), an independent citizens group, posted on its Facebook page about the struggle of women garment workers to get access to public transportation. “A thousand women (may be a 100 men?) stream out of the factory. Not all at once. But in bunches. They are on a mission. To make that purchase. To get on that bus or tempo (which is 3 times cheaper than BMTC). To get home. To start working, again, at home. After 9 hours of work at the garment factory,” the FB post read. The CfB post explained how thousands…

Contract workers working in Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanakara Palike have decided to take to streets on March 8, International Women's Day. A press note from the BBMP Contract Workers Union demanded that the employments of contract workers be regularised. The government has revised their salaries but the benefit is not being enjoyed by the workers, says the press note. Here are the edited excerpts of the press note: Bangalore sees several events to mark women’s day – protests, celebrations, marathons, art and culture events etc. This year, we are asking Bangaloreans to mark women’s day by asking you all to come…

Part-time fashion consultant and drag performer Jabez Kelly speaks about being gay, artistic and loving heels. He shares about the challenges and harassment he has faced while in college, and how he has dealt with them. He further talks about how he has grown as an individual and how he is eagerly looking forward to an upcoming visit to Australia.

Child sexual abuse needs to be handled sensibly. Pic courtesy: Child line India On February 20th, the aggrieved parents of a playschool-going child shared an alarming piece of information in social network sites. They briefly narrated the sad story of their three-and-half-year-old girl child having been the victim of sexual assault in her playschool in Bellandur. The parents alleged that a supervisor at the school had sexually assaulted the child. A case has been filed and the alleged culprit has been arrested within a day. Days later it has been learnt that several other children in the same play school…

Bengaluru has a vibrant community of sexual minorities, and has caught the attention of the mainstream 'society' through the  Director Suhas and the actors Suhas and Chandrasekhar speak about thier short filim about sexual minorities.

If you thought we stopped our newsletters, here we are, back again with a bunch of updates! We have changed a little, and we hope you enjoy reading the newsletter. Before you get into the newsletter: We now have a Telegram channel for sharing our updates from all our websites - Citizen Matters Main, Citizen Matters Bengaluru, and Citizen Matters Chennai. Do join the channel and keep track of what is published across all websites. You won’t see junk from us. Other members won’t be able to see you, and you won’t be able to see them. Mute it if…