City: Mumbai

In 2019, Mehndi and Pooja, as part of their low waste journey from the हम Prithvi से, a social enterprise, visited a doctor practising near the Deonar dumping ground in Govandi. While it was known that the lives of people living around the dumping ground are poor, what they heard was quite heartbreaking. The doctor had been practising there for over a decade. He mentioned that he observed a rise in cases related to air pollution in the past few years. The reason is the rising quantity of dumped waste around and the toxic fumes from the hazardous waste especially after being…

One mohalla clinic opens under 'Mission Healthy Dharavi', 12 more to come The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) opened one mohalla clinic at T-Junction this week under 'Mission Healthy Dharavi' initiative. The civic body plans to open 12 more of such portable clinics in Mumbai and will keep them operational from 3 pm to 10 pm. The initiative aims to provide access to primary healthcare to working class population by ensuring the clinics are functional when they get home from work. The portable clinics will be easy to dismantle and can be carried around to avoid congestion in the area. Source:…

37-year-old Nitin has been a tobacco user for more than 10 years. Last month, he was swinging between life and death in Parel’s King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital after suffering from a heart attack. “I was experiencing pain in my chest, I was unable to breathe. They performed CPR when I reached KEM. I underwent angioplasty and was admitted for a week,” says Nitin, who works as a private driver in Mumbai. The city witnessed a jump in heart-attack cases in the first six months of 2021 as a total of 17,880 lost their lives to it. Nearly 3,000 died every month; in…

“It was 12:05 in the night. Some people were awake, some were asleep,” says Rafiq Shaikh, recounting the landslide that struck Kurar Village in Malad on July 2nd, 2019, killing 32 of his neighbours and washing all their houses away. “It was raining heavily and water had entered our house, so we were awake. Perhaps that’s the only reason we made it out alive,” he says. The retaining wall of the Malad Hill water reservoir, towering over their houses in Pimpri Pada and Ambedkar Nagar in Kurar Village, collapsed under the pressure of 300 mm of continuous rainfall. It was like a…

In August this year, Rakhi Naik, a domestic worker in Mumbai, was found pleading to the police at Khar police station by Aftab Siddique, a teacher and social activist in the city. Rakhi was on one of the many rounds she had made to police stations asking for help after filing an FIR in April. Through Rakhi, Aftab was able to unravel a complicated pattern of fraud in the city. Men claiming to be brokers and agents dupe people from the lower class out of lakhs of money and make affordable housing harder for them. It all started when Rakhi signed an…

3,000 sq m of potholes filled this year, says the BMC In response to the numerous complaints about the state of Mumbai's roads, the BMC claimed it has filled 3,000 sq metres of potholes with rapid hardening concrete this monsoon. Prior to the monsoon, each ward is given Rs 1.5 crore to fix bad patches of roads. The BMC then gives them Rs 50 lakh for filling holes that appear during the rains with cold mix. The wards had asked for 3,004 metric tonnes of the mix earlier in March, but falling short of need, an additional Rs 5 lakh…

Dear General Public, Corporations, and Decision-makers of Mumbai, I, like many of my fellow students, grew up in a world where our present, future and heritage are under-threat due to climate change. As I discovered more about the social and ecological issues around me, the definitions of eco-angst and climate anxiety became unnervingly familiar.  Growing up in the 21st Century, we hear a lot about the environment—campaigns to “save electricity”, “save water” and  “use paper bags”—but I always felt this approach does not look at the large-scale destruction and the climate disasters caused by it.  We are told to micromanage…

It was during the COVID-19 pandemic that I realised that I must join the fight for clean air. As biomedical waste generation increased manifold at health facilities and inside people’s homes, I saw the connection between increasing biomedical waste and the huge quantities of waste being burnt in the incinerator installed in my area. I live in Govandi, where the life expectancy of the people is at an abysmal 39 years on average. The region has a 132-hectare dumping ground, where waste from the entire city is brought. Govandi was one of the worst hit areas during the pandemic due…

The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) unearthed a major milk adulteration racket operating from Dharavi recently, on September 15th. The accused were found slitting the milk packets and removing the milk. They replaced it with water before sealing the cut part with candle flame. The FDA officials seized and destroyed about 807 litres of adulterated milk worth Rs 45, 852. The FDA launched criminal proceedings in a joint operation with the Shahu Nagar police station. A milk adulteration racket busted at Dharavi during a joint operation raid by the FDA and the Mumbai police. Pic courtesy: FDA In another instance,…

Just in time for India’s 75th Independence day, on August 13th, eleven wetlands were added to the list of Ramsar sites. This latest addition was a move loaded with symbolism, taking the number of wetlands of international importance in the country to 75. One among them is Thane creek, which shares shores with Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane. It is the 3rd Ramsar site in the state.  To conserve the rich and biodiverse ecosystems, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands brings together member countries — which India entered in 1982 — for wise use of their wetlands. The Ramsar tag is…