CITIZEN JOURNALISM

Ehsaan Nagar, Gandhi Nagar and Rajiv Nagar  -- three slums in and around Bhopal that are home to 288 families of the Bel-Pardhi, one of the 198 'denotified' tribes in India. Gandhinagar and Ehsaan Nagar came up in 2002 on the outskirts of Bhopal, whereas Rajivnagar is located well within the city limits. In the wake of the COVID-19 triggered lockdown, availability and access to food among these tribal families across these three slums, who lead a hand-to-mouth existence even during normal times, has emerged as an issue of great concern. Out of these 288 households, 50-60% have ration cards,…

Every day at 7 am sharp, 55-year-old Meenakshiammal arrives at the Sathyamoorthy Nagar community toilet in Tiruchirapalli, from her home in a slum close by. She has been cleaning two community toilets for the past 15 years, one on Uppiliar Street and the other at Sathyamoorthy Nagar, spending at least an hour cleaning each one of them. A cleaning agent and a broom were just enough for her until now, but things have changed drastically since the spread of COVID-19 in India and the consequent lockdown. She now wears a mask, gloves and ensures that she washes her hands and…

With nearly one-third of the world’s population under lockdown, once busy roads and streets are now empty, and public transit ridership as well as train and air travel have dropped significantly. The pandemic has slowed down the use of transportation systems and infrastructures. Under these circumstances, transport infrastructure and services around the world are being modified for reduced demands and to meet COVID-related safety standards. But some cities are going as far as to find entirely new ways to continue using existing transportation infrastructure. Adaptive reuse is the process of converting a building or structure to serve a function other…

We met this thin man, sitting on a chair in front of a roadside shop in KR Puram on March 28. He was happy to receive the food packets and water bottles we gave him. We thought he was sitting in that chair to guard his valuable makeshift shop. We kept watching this individual whenever we returned to the same road, after food distribution to needy people in KR Puram Railway station area. He was with another man the first day. His friend didn't accept food from us, but was happy to receive it on the second day, probably due…

It is a bright morning. My mind is filled with optimism and plans, even as I watch my mother carry on with the daily chores all by herself. Almost all of the work that goes into running the household is performed by my mother; others in the family do not share the load. A profound sensitivity dawns, catalyzed by my own consciousness and on realizing that the entire work is performed by the only woman in a family of five for the house to even function. After completing all the regular chores, she sat down and that is when I…

The Bicycle is the simplest solution to the world's most complex problems. As Chris Broadman says in The Guardian, “Pick a crisis and you’ll probably find cycling is a solution”. Cities across the world, including Italy and Spain which have registered high COVID fatalities, are enabling cycling in these troubled times. Berlin, Bogota, Auckland, Budapest, Mexico City are rolling out “emergency” cycleways to boost bicycle use during the COVID pandemic, besides planning an increase in their city’s permanent cycling network. Calgary, Vancouver, Oakland, Philadelphia, Denver, Minneapolis, have opened up some streets only for cycling and walking. In New York, San…

When one hears the words ‘patient dignity’, 'dignity in health care', 'dignity in death,' it conveys that even at their most vulnerable moments, human beings need to be treated with honour and respect. Every patient wants dignity, but are they getting it? 19th May 2020, early morning around 01.45 am, Dhanalakshmi, a senior citizen of our neighbourhood, aged almost 80, was critically ill. Her family and other residents in the building tried to call the 108 and 104 helplines to call for an ambulance. While 108 appeared defunct, 104 was not answered. With few options left, they approached the nearby…

“PSU banks do not provide any kind of credit facilities for people who own lands in the urban villages, they say we belong to the Lal Dora. When we go to the MCD, they say we don’t belong to the Lal Dora and are an urbanised village now,” rues Deepak Tyagi, a 39-year-old resident and RWA president of Budhela village in New Delhi. This intriguing in-between nature of urban villages is what led us to study these areas and the digitalization of land records here. Lal Dora is a red thread that was drawn around the habitation or abadi areas…

In this series, individuals, citizen groups and RWAs explain how they have dealt with the COVID-19 crisis in a constructive manner. In the seventh part of the series, a resident of Jakkur describes how her gated community supported those in need. On March 22, the day our Prime Minister called for Janta Curfew, we sensed the challenge ahead was not going to end anytime soon. The Janta Curfew gave a sneak peek into the potential problems during the long haul. It also made me ask - what can each individual do to minimise these problems?   Around that time, my husband…

In this series, individuals, citizen groups and RWAs explain how they have dealt with the COVID-19 crisis in a constructive manner. In the sixth part of the series, a resident of Vasanth Nagar describes the measures his RWA took. It was two days into the nationwide lockdown when Muniratna, a milkman, mentioned to one of our core team members, “Sir, what about daily wagers in the area? They can’t go anywhere, how will they survive?” Muniratna’s question got this VRWA core team member thinking. He and his family decided to initiate their own small pilot effort to test the waters…