CITIZEN JOURNALISM

There has been concern and commentary that a public list of alleged sexual harassers maligns them and possibly costs them their jobs & family. It is a valid concern. Even so, here is why #MeToo needs to happen, and happen yesterday. And it doesn’t subvert due process, but actually improves it. 1. Sexual harassment, inside and outside workplaces, is the oldest crime in the book. World over, and in India, we have too many historical evidences of public stripping, buying & selling, stalking, sex without consent with women of all ages, stations in life, much worse with caste & poverty.…

The Karnataka Road Development Corporation Ltd ( KRDCL), which is implementing authority for the controversial elevated corridor project in Bengaluru, has recently submitted its application to the State level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (Karnataka) for Environment Impact Assessment Study. Since its inception, the project has met with opposition from several civil society organisations and activists. It has been opposed on several grounds, some of them being – the process being a top down approach with no public consultations, the environmental impact including felling of several thousands of trees, the argument that flyovers and corridors rarely solve congestion in the city,…

My team and I had the first detailed meeting with our local NGO partners from GB road, an infamous red light district of Delhi, in the summer of 2016. It was at the very outset that they warned us that the intended beneficiaries of our scheduled project, which aimed to provide quality eye care at their doorstep, were likely to have reservations about interacting with us, ‘outsiders.’ These were the sex workers and their families residing in the brothels of GB Road. Our partners, Lalitha Nayak (from SPID org), a very experienced educator and social worker and Geetanjali Babbar and…

என் ஞாயிற்றுக்கிழமையை நீ பாழாக்கி விட்டாய்! ஊருக்கு வந்த ஒரு பழைய நண்பரை சந்திக்க காத்திருந்த நாள். நான் தென் சென்னையிலும் அவர் வட சென்னையிலும் தங்கியிருந்ததால், என் சொந்தவூர் என்று பெருமையாக நினைக்கும் இந்த ஊரை சுற்றி போக்குவரத்து நெரிசலின்றி, நிம்மதியாக, இனிமையான பயணத்தை எதிர்பார்த்துக்கொண்டிருந்தேன். எல்லாம் வீட்டை விட்டு வெளியேறும் வரை தான், வெளியேரியபின் எல்லாமே வேறு மாதிரி. என் வண்டியை வெளியே எடுத்து, கியர் போட்ட பிறகு எல்லாம் ஒரு பயமுறுத்தும் அனுபவமாக மாறியது. நகர்வாசிகளுக்கு சேவை செய்ய கடமை பட்டிருக்கிறோம் என்ற எண்ணத்தை முற்றிலும் நிராகரித்து, நகரமே குத்தகைக்கு வண்ணம் தீட்ட விட்டாற்போல் காட்சியளித்தது. ஆமாம் உங்கள் தலைவர் நூற்றாண்டு தான், ஆனால் பொது இடங்களை உங்கள் கட்சியின் சொந்த இடம் போல உபயோகிக்க உங்களுக்கு எந்த உரிமையும் இல்லை. உங்கள் தலைவர் உயிரோடு இருந்தால் உங்கள் அரசியல் விசுவாச ஆரவாரங்களை பார்த்து அவருக்கே பொறுக்காமல்…

October 2. Apart from being Gandhi Jayanthi, this is also one of the days on which Grama Sabha takes place in the state. Grama Sabha, in which all the voters of a village meet, takes place four times a year (on Jan 6, May 1, Aug 15 and Oct 2), and offers a forum for villagers to raise their voices on matters of village governance in the presence of its representatives and officials from the administration. It is an avenue for community participation in governance, a step towards Gandhi’s vision of Gram Swaraj (Village self-rule). Now, take a step closer home,…

There's a lot of talk about Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation's efficiency, price increase and making data-based decisions. People are asking the BMTC to stop fare hike. Before getting emotional about it all, let us go through the following points. Do we want to run BMTC as public sector transport organisation generating profit/Return on Investment (ROI) and to grow the network specifically focused on profits? Do we want to run BMTC as an employment-oriented social responsibility organisation to the public at large irrespective of its income/expenditure status? Do we want to run BMTC as a social responsibility for every citizen (Indian…

Citizens of Bengaluru were delighted to notice the tough action taken against the perpetrators of the city’s biggest eyesores - the polluting buntings and banners. These ugly and disfiguring hoardings used to obstruct straight vision and trigger off accidents by diverting motorists. For the past one month, thanks to the ultimatum by Karnataka High Court Chief Justice subsequent to a couple of PILs; the buntings were removed on a war footing. But now, for the past few days banners and buntings have started slowly popping up trampling the ban order. A few days back huge banners were being fixed across…

Panathur, situated near Kadubeesanahalli area in East Bengaluru, despite being the bridge to Outer Ring Road and Varthur where many tech parks are located, has always been a disguised rich slum. For people who migrate to Bengaluru thinking that it is an IT hub, the dreams shatter on the very first day, when they see the traffic here. Many multi-million dollar companies have their offices in the vicinity and the place is home to many good apartments - “good” as long as the residents are inside. What does a usual day on Panathur road look like? Even on the weekends,…

Dear Chennai politicians, I have a bone to pick. You ruined my Sunday. A Sunday which I was looking forward to. A Sunday which I had marked on the calendar, to meet an old friend who had come to town. My friend was staying in North Chennai and I, in the South and I was looking forward to a peaceful, traffic free ride through the city I proudly call home. All that and more changed the very instant I left home. The moment I stepped out and shifted gears, I was in for a harrowing experience. The whole city looked…

It has been six years since Bengaluru’s waste management mess was brought to the notice of the High Court of Karnataka through a Public Interest Litigation, by Kavitha Shankar and the Solid Waste Management Round Table team. While the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has undertaken many measures to help manage waste better, there is lots more that remains to be done. When the PIL began in 2012, the city of Bengaluru was producing about 3,500 tonnes of waste per day, with no waste segregation in place and all waste going to landfill. All mixed garbage from the city was…