City: Mumbai

Mumbai’s perennial struggle with routine waterlogging and catastrophic floods is the result of several limitations in the city’s storm water drainage system. This includes its reliance on its riverine ecosystems of which the Mithi River is a key component. The Mithi is an urban river whose course has been trained and altered over the years, for almost its entire 17 km stretch. Channelizing the Mithi river for effective flood-risk mitigation has altered its capacity in several places, the impact of which is borne by those who live and work on the riverfront. Satellite images tracing the altered course of the…

As India completes 75 years of independence, it is important to critically examine freedom that is now reduced to mere symbols and performance. While the privileged enjoy comfortable lives, vulnerable communities, like lower-caste groups, live on scraps and do inhumane, caste-based jobs for a living. Generations of people are forced into cleaning excreta in sewers despite several technological and scientific advancements that should make the work of manual scavenging less labour-intensive. The state has repeatedly failed at bare minimum provisions to rehabilitate these workers, despite a ban on manual scavenging. Now, a nationwide campaign called Stop Killing Us is expressing…

Mumbai's fisherfolk share a strong camaraderie that has only strengthened over time amidst threats to their livelihood. For the last several years, they have complained about dwindling catch due to various infrastructural projects. Some left the occupation decades ago for upward mobility and more are now contemplating leaving. What remains unchanged in the face of adversity is the enthusiasm and celebrations around Narali Purnima, the annual coconut festival celebrated on August 11th this year. The festival is of great significance to the fishers from the Koli community, the city’s earliest inhabitants. From Sassoon Docks where boats unload the day's catch. The dock…

On July 1st 2022, Mumbai introduced a brand new plastic ban along with the rest of the country. 21 selected single-use plastic (SUP) items were outlawed for their low utility and high littering potential. These include disposable cutlery, plastic sticks for candies, ice cream and balloons, plastic flags, thermocol for decoration and carry bags under 75 microns thick. Come January 2023, the minimum thickness required for plastic bags will increase to 120 microns.  But Mumbai has been under a far more extensive plastic ban since June 2018. Most of the products on the newly banned list have not been allowed for manufacture, transport, storage…

Maximum pothole complaints reported from Western suburbs Data from Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), a day after a couple lost their lives to a pothole accident, at a carriageway flyover on the WEH opposite the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), showed that nearly 48% of total pothole-related complaints have been raised from Mumbai’s western suburbs in 2022. “The WEH is being maintained by MSRDC and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). The WEH along with the adjoining service road is infamous for potholes, however, it’s not BMC’s responsibility to maintain them. Whenever we receive any complaint we forward it to the responsible agencies,”…

Lallubhai Compound in Mumbai's Mankhurd is one of those areas where nobody wants to live unless they are compelled by their circumstances. All the residents here were rehabilitated about two decades ago by the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) in buildings built with the sole purpose of providing a roof, everything else was left up to the people. Up until 2009, the area lacked access to clean drinking water, there were no schools and no street lights; late evenings were a big no for women. While some sent their children to schools at Sion Trombay Road, which is about 4 km…

When Bano Abdul Sattar (28) was a young girl living in Bandra east chawls, she could only do jobs that her family deemed appropriate for a woman. She picked up multiple jobs in her early teens; she helped her family run a roadside anda bhurji stall at night, worked as a tailor, and even as a mehendi artist. But this was far from what fascinated her. What captured her imagination when she was young were cars and the thought of driving one someday. And so, at the age of 16, she did just that. "Main na, chupke uncle log ko paise deti thi.…

For a majority of the population, moving homes is typically a voluntary decision made with great deliberation, taking into account the impact on education, employment and health. However, for the millions of slum residents in Mumbai, the same exercise is a result of routine eviction and demolitions. If these families are fortunate, they are moved to slum resettlements. Consider the case of one of the largest slum resettlement drives in Mumbai, documented through the eyes of women by Ramya Ramanath in her book, A Place To Call Home: Women as Agents of Change in Mumbai. An associate professor at DePaul University,…

Flash strikes have plagued Mumbai’s public buses at least five times in the past three years, since private buses were introduced in the Brihanmumbai Electric and Supply Transport (BEST) fleet in 2019. Two strikes by BEST workers happened in Mumbai Central bus and Magathane bus depots on April 2nd and 26th, 2021. This year, Kurla depot saw no buses turn out on April 22nd, 2022 and for three consecutive days on May 17th-21st, 2022. Similar strikes happened on July 17th-18th at Vikhroli, Wadala, Bandra and Kurla depots. After the strikes, the workers were cajoled and convinced or were paid (overdue) salaries to return to their jobs. …

The years 2013 and 2014 stand out in the State of Health report for Mumbai released by Praja Foundation. With a discrepancy of over thousands of deaths in those years in the age group of 0 to 4 for diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and tuberculosis, the data raises more questions than answers. Collected from all the 24 wards under Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) through RTIs up until 2015, the data shows strange figures for the cause of death among various age groups. For instance, the data shows that in 2013, 1,612 children in the age group of 0 to 4 died…