City: Mumbai

With less than five months for the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election in February 2022, political workers from across parties face uncertainties. It is unclear which section of the local population will be able to vote for them, causing confusion on the ground as citizens await clearance from Maharashtra’s State Election Commission. Why are constituencies being redrawn now?  Electoral constituencies or electoral wards are altered according to changes in sizes of local populations, to ensure equal representation and a fair division of geographical areas so that no political party has an advantage. “Each corporator has an average population of around…

Parcham Collective, an organisation that facilitates football practice sessions for adolescent girls in Mumbra, Thane, organised a wall painting event in the area on October 2nd in the Fatima Bi Savitri Bai sports ground for girls, as an inauguration of the ground that the girls will now use for training officially. “The ground was reserved for the girls by the Thane municipal corporation, and the opposition party arranged for appropriate landscaping of the ground, a first by local authorities and the opposition.” said Sabah Khan, co-founder of Parcham. The name of the ground was an ode to Fatima Shaikh and Savitri…

Birds in India migrate from Northern latitudes to escape cold temperatures during winter. Some arrive during monsoons to breed and some are passage migrants that take a pit stop in the country around October-November and March-April, during their journeys elsewhere. Some are local migrants that move within the country according to their breeding cycle.  We should appreciate the long journeys which migratory birds take in order to complete their life cycle. In terms of migration routes of birds, Navi Mumbai lies near one of the paths of the Central Asian Flyway.  Starling, Buntings, Rosefinch, Stonechat and Pipits migrate to Mumbai…

Everyday from 12 am to 3 pm, Mayank* works for Tokree, a grocery delivery app. He then switches to the ubiquitous black-and-orange Swiggy t-shirt, and from 3 pm to 12 am delivers food from restaurants to homes. “For every Tokree delivery, I get paid Rs 35. But with Swiggy, I only get a minimum of Rs 20 per trip,” he says. Mayank is one of the 3+ lakh strong workforce in the country suffering the brunt of low wages and poor working conditions in the food delivery and e-commerce industries. Unable to make ends meet, many of them are switching…

Mumbai sees highest COVID-19 cases since July 26 Cases of COVID-19 have gradually increased in Mumbai since the festive season began with Ganesh Chaturthi. On Thursday, the number hit 5,317, the highest in the city since July 26. Officials from Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)’s health department said they are anticipating a spike post-Dussehra as more people step out. However, officials said the rise in cases is not a cause for concern. They say the situation is under control since most of Mumbai’s population has taken at least one dose of the and nearly half have taken both doses. Source: The…

The threats induced by COVID-19 continue to warn the masses against large crowds and uncovered faces. Since masking became the norm, cases of flu viruses and common colds saw a rapid decline, but have resurfaced with the onset of the monsoon season. This might bring confusions in diagnoses, and people might wonder if they have COVID-19 or a viral fever. With so many viruses in the air, it is important to understand the differences between them for an accurate diagnosis and preventive practice. Read more: Walk-ins introduced in Mumbai’s vaccination centres to help local residents Mumbai | Masking norms had reduced…

Plastic pollution in oceans is overwhelming. A standard garbage truck in New York holds about 13.6 metric tons of trash after it’s been finely packed. This equates to nearly 600,000 garbage trucks full of trash per year, 50,000 garbage trucks of trash per month, 1,600 per day, and more than one full garbage truck per minute getting dumped into the ocean, with no plan for removal, directly threatening the ecology. What are the solutions? Many environmentalist groups are working to solve the ocean plastic problem by removing plastic that has accumulated over time. While this is one of many ideal…

"We have lost everything. Who has reaped? still, we are displaced in our freedoms" are the opening lines of the poem ईरपाल (erpal), meaning grievance, by local Koli poet Shahir Pundalik Mhatre; documented by the Tandel Fund of Archives, an archival project run by artists Parag Tandel and Kadambari Koli. The poem hallmarks the many years of displacement of the Kolis of Bombay, and the reclamation of their lands by the city's industries. The city's earliest inhabitants, its vibrant fisherfolk, are now fighting a long battle with their own home.  Morning travels in the Mumbai local trains are usually marked…

In 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) found that roughly 7.5 per cent Indians suffer from some form of a mental disorder, and predicted that by the end of 2021, close to 20 percent of Indians will suffer from mental health illnesses. With a shortage of mental health professionals, a culture of denial and hesitation, a majority that cannot afford professional help, these statistics confirm that there is a desperate need for informed discourse around mental health and the systems that affect it.  Read more: Mental health helpline received 72,000 calls in a year, thanks to the pandemic Below is…

Colaba-Seepz Metro Will Be Tested at Marol-Maroshi Route By Next Year Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday, September 30th, announced trial runs of the Colaba-SEEPZ Metro rail line 3 in Mumbai that will be held underground at Marol-Maroshi, outside the Aarey green belt. "The trial runs for the Metro line 3 will be done underground at Marol-Maroshi, outside the Aarey area; later, the train will be run on the Colaba-SEEPZ line as well. After the trial runs, 31 such trains will run on the route" he said. He also instructed officials that not a single tree in Aarey should…