CITIZEN JOURNALISM

Mariappa, a resident of Silicon City, who lives a few minutes away from the city’s glittering high street, leads a challenging life. He is a pit worker in Bengaluru, eking out a living from the repulsive job of manually cleaning the gutters of the high tech city. His entire family does pit work. Mariappa rues, “My body stinks.” He adds that many pit workers, several of whom live in the heart of the city, have got diseases and have even died due to their work.  Even though manual scavenging has been legally banned, it is still practised in Bengaluru. In…

Part 1 of this series traced the journey of raising awareness about waste management and facilitating behavioural change in phase 1 of #TeamLBTC’s (Let's Be The Change) efforts in Mestri Palya. In part 2, we look at the process behind empowering the community members to create products out of waste as well as what more can be done to replicate the same model of waste management in other slums in the city. Waste to wealth initiative Soon after the successful implementation of Phase 1 of the project, we gradually moved into Phase 2. Before the initiation of Phase 2, an…

International Mountain Day is celebrated on December 11th as a response to call by UNCED (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development). The aim is to raise awareness about the importance of the fragile ecosystems and to come up with different ways to sustain and prevent them from destruction of any kind. Forest, hills, plants and animals are my life. I was fortunate to grow amidst nature, wild animals and birds. Being a pahadan (the one who lives in the mountains), hills and mountains are in my blood. When I came to Kharghar in 2016, the hill, simply called the…

Bengaluru is experiencing  a surge in migration, due to rapid urbanisation and population growth, leading to the rise of  urban poor settlements or slums. These slums face daily challenges, including improper housing, inadequate access to water, sanitation, waste management, and other basic facilities. The prevalent unhygienic conditions in these settlements contribute to health issues, notably a surge in  diseases like dengue while nearby government hospitals often lack the necessary facilities.   A critical issue is improper waste management in these areas. There are disparities in opportunities for dumping, collecting, and disposing of waste. This further compounds the challenges faced by the urban poor.…

Part 1 looked at the details of the Bengaluru Climate Action and Resilience Plan (BCAP), its objectives, focus areas, resource planning, etc. The Government of Karnataka has tasked Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) with the primary leadership and responsibility for this initiative. While plans on paper seem comprehensive, the ground reality, however, leaves much to be desired. The challenges are many. The government needs to put in place a governance structure to execute them, considering that BBMP, entrusted with the primary leadership responsibility, hasn’t had an election for over seven years! What does sustainable and healthy living-an objective of BCAP-mean for…

As Chennai citizens are slowly trying to get back to normalcy after the destruction from floods following Cyclone Michaung, another disaster is unfolding in North Chennai. A few days ago, locals in the Manali area of the city, which was flooded following heavy rains, reported finding high amount of oil residue in the waters in the region close to the Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL). A viral video has since been circulated that shows volunteers who went to distribute food and essentials to families in Ernavoor, wading through flood waters that was totally contaminated by an oil spill. While local…

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) announced the formation of the Bengaluru Climate Action Plan on November 27th with WRI India as knowledge partner. This is as a result of Bengaluru being a signatory to the C40 cities. Citizens wholeheartedly welcome the BCAP initiative and what it sets out for Bengaluru in the long term. This article breaks down BCAP’s objectives and highlights some of the serious concerns of citizens regarding the city's fragile governance mechanism. BCAP and its objectives Objective: Make Bengaluru carbon neutral or achieve net zero carbon footprint by 2050. The entire initiative is based on delivering sustainable…

Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project (BSRP) is the first project taken up under Government of India’s (GoI) new Suburban Rail Policy. From that angle, it is of national importance. How it pans out will have a bearing on future projects under this Policy. Therefore, Bengaluru cannot afford to fail itself and the country. Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project (BSRP) map. Pic: Rajkumar Dugar Background of the project After decades of discussions, on 21 October, 2020, BSRP was sanctioned to be built at a cost of Rs. 15,767 crores with four corridors crisscrossing Bengaluru over a total length of 148 kilometres. The Sanction…

As a wheelchair user, who likes to travel and go around the city, the biggest hurdle is navigating public spaces and using public transport to get around. As a member of the Disability Rights Alliance (DRA) in Chennai, I have taken part in accessibility audits and have been involved in different activities such as training wheelchair users for state and national-level competitions in a paralympic game called Boccia. Whenever we travel for all these activities, accessibility is the main challenge. Most of the public transport including buses and trains cannot be used by persons with physical disabilities, especially people who…

As I write this, Hyderabad is gearing up to vote in the Telangana state assembly polls scheduled for November 30th. Political rhetoric and slugfests have both been at a peak over the last few months leading up to these elections. But in the usual noise, what is often lost are the real needs of the city and its people. What Hyderabad needs most urgently is good governance. There is a vacuum of participatory governance, ethical governance, transparent governance, and accountable governance. The city faces several social, economic, environmental and other challenges, the resolution for which can come about only through…