CATEGORY: Society

Imagine this: the electricity zaps off at noon during summer, and the air conditioning switches off. The sweat begins trickling down your back, and the hot air envelops your room. In these situations, Abirami DM and her family sit near the courtyard of their traditional home in Chintadripet, as the breeze filters in. This two-storey home, which has witnessed six generations of Abirami’s family, is built with materials like red oxide flooring and mud walls. “I grew up here, so I couldn’t find the difference in terms of heat until my maternal side of the family moved from a traditional…

The Greater Bengaluru Integrated Township (GBIT) in Bidadi, first notified in March 2025, received its final notification in June 2026 under the Karnataka Urban Development Authorities Act (KUDA Act), 1987. The project is branded as India's first and largest AI City, featuring an AI-integrated township. The project will be implemented by the Greater Bengaluru Development Authority (GBDA) under the same act. Three villages, Kempainapalya, Vaderahalli, and Mandalahalli are notified in the Gazette under Section 19(1) of the KUDA Act for the implementation of a development scheme, deemed as public purpose. The development scheme is spread over a total of 7,481…

For Rayyan Monkey, a transgender voter from Mumbai, the SIR does not just threaten her right to vote. It also risks her ability to travel freely and exist as a woman in the country. Raised abroad before moving to Mumbai, Rayyan was left unmapped on the voter lists because her parents did not vote in 2002. The only way for her to complete her progeny mapping is to provide either her grandfather’s Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) card or her father’s birth certificate. However, after coming out to her family, Rayyan has been estranged from her extended relatives. Her father’s documents,…

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot/ With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swinging hot spot. These words of the Joni Mitchell classic Big Yellow Taxi filled a corner of Pushpa Narsee Park in Juhu on a bright Sunday morning in March. Though the song was released in 1970, the words resonate in 2026, especially for this park. There have been several attempts to convert Pushpa Narsee Park into a parking lot, only foiled by the vigilance of the locals, says Anca Florescu Abraham, co-founder of Love Your Parks Mumbai (LYPMumbai). This initiative advocates for the…

Nine two-wheeler riders die every hour in India. In 2024 alone, more than 4 lakh road accidents were reported. Nearly 1.7 lakh people lost their lives in these crashes. While Indian roads aren't the best, Dimpu Chindappa also attributes accidents to driver behaviour. Dimpu is an engineer who was building roads and now she own a driving school in Bengaluru, "Drivonaut". Drivonaut is a unique driving school which prioritises road safety and prepares drivers to prevent accidents. While most driving classes cut through the system to get their students the driving license, Drivonaut ensures that they are fully prepared for…

TMN Deepak, a professor of social work who has a physical disability, commutes from Velachery to Loyola College in Chennai for work every day. He owns a wheelchair cum scooter that allows him to cover short distances comfortably, but he avoids public transport. “Instead, I have had to go for an automatic car, which has increased my overall spend, and I had to shell out an additional ₹2.5 lakh for modifications,” he says. Deepak's monthly petrol costs exceed ₹6,000. “I prefer not to use the bus because of inaccessibility,” he explains, highlighting how the lack of accessible public transport forces…

In 2014, Srividhya didn’t imagine she would help dozens navigate through mental illness, consistently pushing them to reflect and dream of a better life. The 55-year-old’s routine involves shuttling between ten homes for the mentally ill run by The Banyan, a Chennai-based NGO, across Kovalam. A long list of daily tasks ensues — attending to the mental health needs of service users, supervising hygiene, functioning, and vital signs, and noting medications, as well as participating in group discussions, among others. “When clients say they are glad I’m coming, it feels like a certification beyond money, pride and fame. It feels…

76-year-old Bela Nag, a retired school teacher in Kolkata, finds urban life increasingly isolating. “Young people have no patience with the elderly,” she says, “Availing basic services has become a challenge due to technological advancements and wide scale adoption.” Bela’s sentiments only reflect what is reality for many seniors across urban India who are constantly grappling with the pressure of adapting to exploding cities, migration and rapid digital change. Their predicament brings to the fore larger questions around the effect of city living on the mental health of seniors, especially those who live alone. What affordable, stigma-free, accessible solutions can…

Fifty-five-year-old Gnana Bharathi, a scientist at the Central Leather Research Institute and a wheelchair user for over two decades, rarely takes the bus anymore. Chennai’s bus stops and termini, he says, are designed in a way that makes independent travel “nearly impossible”— from reaching the stop safely, to getting onto the platform and finally boarding the bus — without physical risk. So, when the Greater Chennai Corporation declared the Vivekananda House Bus Stop on Kamarajar Salai as an accessible, ‘model bus stop’, he decided to try it.“When I arrived at the location in my wheelchair, I couldn’t even access the…

Amidst the green hues of the Lalbagh Botanical Gardens in Bengaluru, conversations on mental health are getting a new shade. On one Saturday morning each month, beneath the majestic trees, people from different backgrounds gather to interact with mental health professionals. The discussions span a wide variety of themes such as emotional well-being, suicide prevention, digital overuse and much more, creating an open forum where dialogue replaces one-way information. This initiative, called Community Connect, envisioned by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), converts a public park into a space for shared learning and support. The Mental Health…