CITIZEN JOURNALISM

According to some accounts such as this, every year over 200 pedestrians are killed on Hyderabad’s roads on average. This number might seem like a lot, but as someone who walks very often, I was actually expecting it to be quite higher considering the absolute lack of apathy from our civic authorities and even fellow citizens to pedestrian safety.  It is said that everyone is a pedestrian at some point. I don’t know how true that is, because it fails to explain the life-threatening situations our city forces pedestrians to be in almost everywhere. Issues with infrastructure A big part…

For long, I was intrigued by this derelict locomotive lying in the Indira Gandhi Musical Fountain Park opposite the Jawahar Lal Nehru Planetarium. I would have a fleeting glance of it while passing the gate. I had once seen it from up close and did not see any markings on it. Truly, it was a mystery locomotive. A few years back I went to the park to do a detailed documentation of the locomotive. The more I looked at it, the prettier it seemed. The first thing that one usually does when confronted with locomotives that don't bear any markings,…

Wearing a loose khaki shirt over a polyester saree, Shanthi D starts her auto on what promises to be yet another challenging day. She has been an auto driver for almost 16 years now. Shanthi started her career at a time when very few women had the courage to choose this path. Years have gone by, and while the number of women colleagues in the profession has increased, even now, she is greeted with amusement or shock by many. Strong and determined Women auto drivers in Chennai are a growing tribe. While their choices do reflect a degree of empowerment,…

Historically, civilizations grew around rivers in their valleys (i.e. Nile and Indus valleys). It is relatively very recent in human history that we now dwell and thrive in spaces that are far away from rivers or other water bodies. I (Deepak) have read earlier that the city of Mumbai, with its population of 20 million people, draws its water requirement from large reservoirs and rivers that are more than a 100 km away from downtown city. Ironically, the native population living around these reservoirs have been restricted access to these bodies of water that are present in their communities. The…

In Bengaluru, apartments have to set up their own Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) to manage the sewage they generate. But the design and operations of most apartment STPs are flawed. Often, residents suffer due to the poor quality of treated water which they have to reuse; and excess sludge from the STP is dumped elsewhere, endangering public health. We, at Brigade Altamont apartment in K Narayanapura, recently fine-tuned our STP system so as to make it fully legally-compliant, and with little investment. K Narayanapura has no underground sewer network, and our apartment is located near a rajakaluve that traverses Arkavathy…

The Wetlands in India, Mumbai and Navi Mumbai included, are under severe threat. Time to take action is now. "According to the environment ministry, 35 per cent of wetlands have disappeared since the 1970s and 87 per cent have been lost since the 1700s. Causes of wetland loss are drainage and infilling for agriculture and construction, pollution, overexploitation of resources (like overfishing), invasive species and climate change." - Hindustan Times Read more: How a Navi Mumbai citizens group fought for the flamingos World Wetlands Day World Wetlands Day, that is observed on 2nd February every year, was celebrated by several…

Newspaper reading has been a habit quite lost in the recent years. However, in a city where thousands of people spend many hours commuting, newspapers are a way to kill time. Here's a how people used to read newspapers in the 'old normal' or before the pandemic struck and lockdown was imposed. Kurla 2019. (Pic: M. Gopal) Bandra 2018. (Pic: M. Gopal) Chembur 2017. (Pic: M. Gopal) Chembur 2017. (Pic: M. Gopal) Chembur 2016. (Pic: M. Gopal) Andheri 2018.(Pic: M. Gopal) Lalbag 2020. (Pic: M. Gopal) Kurla 2019. (Pic: M. Gopal) Harbour Line 2019. (Pic: M. Gopal) GTN Nagar 2020.…

“We have been in the business of dry waste management for years but nobody gives us a salary or respects us,” says Nayan Mohammad, a local waste picker in Velachery. Time and again, local waste pickers have been denied recognition for the vital work they do. They lack any kind of safety net and continue to operate informally on the fringes of waste management and are not given an opportunity to step into the formal fold.  This time too, with the Indo-Spanish partnership ‘Urbaser-Sumeet’ bagging the waste management contract with Greater Chennai Corporation, waste pickers in many parts of the…

You walk up to the counter and pick up your serving of piping hot sambar rice and sit in a neat row of chairs under colourful umbrellas. You make a mental note to pick up some coffee from the small kiosk on the premises on your way out. After polishing off your meal, you pay Rs 5, a fraction of what it would cost you anywhere in the city, as you have just eaten at Amma canteen 2.0. This could well be the future of the ubiquitous, government-run, low-cost eateries as its management has been turned over to a trust…

We, the citizens of Mumbai are extremely thankful and grateful to Mumbai's Municipal Commissioner's extraordinary leadership during this Corona Pandemic. In most of the actions, they have taken citizen’s voice at the centre of decision-making and particularly while overseeing the “chase Corona” policy. This piece is regarding the agents responsible for collecting the Mask Penalty of Rs 200. (Read about the penalty here.) Taking strict measures to check on the spread of coronavirus, Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) imposed strict rules for people travelling in public transport and visiting shopping malls in September 2020. It also announced that people…