CITIZEN JOURNALISM

While I have not witnessed anything like this in my lifetime, as a social scientist and as an entrepreneur I can see that the phobia has gone to another level. And I believe this is because we live in an 'Information Age' where every piece of information is a hyperbole, with global implications. We are overloaded with information, it's driving us insane. It's reducing our sense of wisdom, patience, kindness and empathy. It's making us all information addicts. But that said, the physical reality of it is far scarier. For instance, I stay in a huge, beautiful, green society in…

Karnataka’s Urban Development Department, through the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT), has prepared a draft Parking Policy for Bengaluru city. Citizens can send their feedback on the policy to DULT until May 15. DULT says the policy has been formulated to achieve the following goals in a systematic and time bound manner: Move from chaotic parking to well-organised parkingMove from free parking to paid parkingMove from government-driven parking supply to market-driven parking supply and managementMove from passive and weak enforcement of parking regulations to active management of parking demand. Comments on the proposed parking policy The policy aims to…

As we cover the COVID-19 outbreak in the city, we also asked various individuals, citizen groups and RWAs to explain how they have dealt with the COVID-19 crisis. In this piece, a senior citizen relates his experience during the lockdown. I'm not at all affected by the lockdown necessitated by the Covid-19 scare because, as a retired person, I am already under some sort of a lockdown. However, in the present situation, I am unable to perform some of my routine activities like going to the bank, park, temples and making occasional visits to other places.  So far, I have not…

Parents resorting to healthy parenting skills through Google. Youngsters who otherwise spend their time roaming the serene streets of Theni Corporation engaged in social service, visiting senior citizens in the locality and buying them essential commodities. Children aged three years teaching grandparents how to use mobile phones and citizens playing traditional games indoors. The lockdown imposed to arrest the spread of the deadly coronavirus outbreak has changed the entire lifestyle of residents in the Southern city of Tamil Nadu. This is the time when children usually take up intensive summer classes in subjects such as Computers, Spoken English and Abacus…

Senior citizens are more vulnerable and face specific challenges during the COVID-19 lockdown. In this series, some seniors discuss how they’ve been dealing with the situation. In the second part of the series, a senior citizen writes on the solutions he found to cope with lockdown. In less than six months since its appearance on planet earth, COVID-19 has killed over two lakh humans, apart from infecting over three million more and handing out death threats to the rest of humanity. Intense efforts are on to prevent its spread, help those infected, find a cure and develop a vaccine against…

Senior citizens are more vulnerable and face specific challenges during the COVID-19 lockdown. In this series, some seniors discuss how they’ve been dealing with the situation. In the first part of the series, a senior citizen describes the new challenges that have descended on her. While the media has focused on the woes of migrant workers trekking hundreds of kilometres to return to their native villages after their earnings dried up in the wake of the virus pandemic, not much has been written or said about the hassles that middle-class families have had to face, especially the elderly. Take me.…

The budget for the FY 2020 – 21 has been presented through video conferencing due to the lockdown announced by the State Government.  Let us see the figures presented in the budget. The total budget is for Rs. 10897.58 crore which is 6.5% lower than the previous year’s budget. But the more important revelation in the budget document is the revised figures for the previous year 2019-20. The revenue receipts are just 60% of the budgeted figure. In other words, against the projection of Rs. 11,652.93 crore they have been able to raise only Rs. 7067.86 crore.  When its performance…

Ever since the first national lockdown to fight the battle with Coronavirus was imposed, starting March 25, 2020, questions over labour and labouring have been discussed and deliberated upon with an intensity hardly ever witnessed before in modern India. The trigger for it has been the hapless situation of migrant labour, the working poor and daily wage earners, evident across the country. This is an especially unique historical moment, because culturally speaking, we have never really valued labour or given it the dignity it deserves, even if we pay lip service to the same. Yet, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought…

In this series, individuals, citizen groups and RWAs explain how they have dealt with the COVID-19 crisis in a constructive manner. In the fifth part of the series, the Bicycle Mayor of Bengaluru describes the measures he took. I was selected as the first Bicycle Mayor of Bengaluru in May 2018 by BYCS, an Amsterdam-based NGO. I'm one of more than 100 Bicycle Mayors across the globe who are trying to shift transportation in cities to the bicycle. The #CycleToWork campaign I launched in September 2018, has catalysed work commute by cycle; and its online platform has attracted more than…

The residents of Electronic City, which is not even within BBMP limits, are becoming guinea pigs for the Palike’s misguided attempts at ‘scientific waste management’. BBMP has signed an agreement to set up an incineration-based Waste-to-Energy (WtE) plant at Chikkanagamangala, a stone's throw away from Electronic City. Problems with the existing plant The project is coming up at a site that currently houses a composting plant running under BBMP’s direct supervision. This plant processes wet waste from 44 BBMP wards. Operational since May 2018, it soon led to stench and fly menace in the locality. Last July, the National Green…