City: Mumbai

Over the past few years, rising temperatures, heat waves, and oppressive humidity have made Mumbai scorching hot. But not all parts of the city heat up equally. Life in some is more stifling than the others.  A recent World Resources Institute (WRI) infographic showed that in October, Dharavi is typically five degrees hotter than Matunga, its immediate neighbour. The study looked at Mumbai’s average land surface temperatures in October over the past three years. Land surface temperature is the radiative skin temperature of land which is recorded using satellite-derived data. Quite simply, it is about how hot a "surface", like a…

When some residents in Pune couldn’t get information about an upcoming commercial complex within their residential neighbourhood, they approached Right To Information (RTI) activist and journalist Vinita Deshmukh for help.  Deshmukh visited the government office with residents. But, the officials refused to share the information, claiming the loss of the requested file. The residents stayed put and insisted on seeing a copy of FIR about the missing file. Lo and behold, the missing file emerged within 15 minutes and the residents acquired the information they needed.  Most RTI activists have their own stories about being denied information and how they…

In my initial days in Mumbai, Durga Puja meant soaking in the memories of the grand festivities in my hometown, Kolkata. This changed, after Krishti, the association of over 300 Bengali families of Lokhandwala Township, Kandivali East, started celebrating Durgatsov Pujo right where we live. Pujo is the “Big Bong Festival”. Over the last 15 years that Krishti has been organising Pujo, acquaintances became friends and friends turned into one big joint family, for whom Pujo is an attempt to keep the Bengali culture, heritage, traditions and identity alive. We converge with similar passions, emotions, love of life, warmth of togetherness,…

Drawing inspiration from protests in New Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, hundreds of women sat in protest against anti-Muslim citizenship laws, on a road in South Mumbai's Nagpada since the night of January 26 around 11 PM - in what came to be called Mumbai Bagh. Although the protests were suspended in the wake of the COVID19 outbreak, they continued symbolically. Today, the protest site on Morland Road near Hotel Arbia has pictures of women leaders and has only one slogan on placard "hum kal yaha the" (we were here yesterday). The site where anti CAA protests were held pre-lockdown. Photo: Santoshee…

Mallappa Korvi, a lift mechanic, was hopeful. After decades spent in a 6X6 room, a 220-square foot apartment would have been an enormous improvement. Since the early 90s, 390 residents, of a 3,827-square metre plot near Dhobi Ghat in Mahalakshmi, had tried to engage a real-estate developer for rehabilitation. But when no developer was willing, they decided to steer the project in another direction. The residents formed a society called Ganesh Nagar D Co-operative Housing Society with the assistance of Slum Rehabilitation Society (SRS), a local NGO working towards providing "accommodation to hutment dwellers" in Mumbai. From 1998 to the…

The COVID-19 pandemic currently devastating the globe has infected almost 7 million people in India, resulting in over 100,000 deaths. The figure is comparable to the official reported deaths caused by Tuberculosis (TB) in 2019. Despite TB being a preventable disease, this is a yearly phenomenon. Big cities have seen the highest concentration of COVID-19 cases. A district-wise analysis conducted in July showed that a mere 10 cities (including Mumbai) accounted for 52.7% of all active cases in the country. The infection is more widespread now, but Mumbai continues to be among the worst hit cities. Its sprawling slum population,…

World Mental Health Day is observed on October 10, with the objective of raising awareness about mental health issues. According to World Health Organisation's (WHO) World Health Report of 2001, one in four people in the world will be affected by mental or neurological disorders (depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, dementia, etc) at some point in their lives. It is estimated that currently, at least 10 percent of the world’s population is affected. (Photo: Fernando on Unsplash.com) Citizen Matters caught up with Malathi to find out what prompted her to make a film about mental health, her experience as a first-time film…

In the mid 70s, when the Maharashtra Slum Area (Improvement, Clearance and Redevelopment) Act, 1971, was enforced in Bombay, Shabbir Qureshi, 60, witnessed a quiet evolution of his Wadala neighbourhood. His parents had immigrated from Gujarat and settled in the “jungle-like” village, from where they could observe the slow shaving of a nearby hill. All around, Qureshi remembers, were jhuggi jhopdis balanced with wood and bamboo. There were no community water taps or public toilets.   The new Act mandated that the government provide sanitary and hygienic conditions in slums. It called those with a “photo-pass” (government-issued identification cards) “protected occupiers” who…

What use is it if Mumbai reduces lockdown restrictions but doesnt open up its main public transport system? Unlock - 5 started from October 1 but the local trains are still restricted to a select few.  Local trains can be accessed by ‘essential workers’ by using a QR code based electronic pass system, that can be availed only through their organisations.  Subsequently, personnel from private power companies and is now stretched to include private medical staffers, aircraft maintenance personnel, private bankers and even advocates were allowed on trains. More buses are being brought in to supplement the existing BEST bus networks,…

Anyone without a hobby would have perished during lockdown! Hobbies are a diversion from our routine life, and help to unburden our minds from various problems. They result in networking, get us in touch with like-minded communities of people with whom we can discuss our common interests, and help one another in improvement. Our hobby is amateur Radio, commonly called ham radio. Ham Radio Club, IIT Bombay (Photo: Ham Radio Club, IIT Bombay) Ham Radio Club, IIT Bombay was founded in 2017. "We bring people, communication and electronics together."  Ham radio is a form of two-way wireless communication that uses the…