CITIZEN JOURNALISM

With a spike in positive cases being reported across the country, India is working towards containment of COVID-19 on a war footing. The number of COVID-19 positive patients across India breached 22,000 mark with more than 700 deaths. (as on 23rd April, 21:30 PM) The National Health Profile of 2019 indicates that among the various major communicable diseases reported in 2018 across India, acute respiratory diseases had the highest share of cases. Experts suggest that people with medical conditions such as respiratory illness are at high risk of developing serious complications related to COVID-19. This suggests that our population is…

The more important question is: What should they be doing? From what I can see, some are involved in the distribution of food and rations, some have taken a more proactive approach in organising home delivery of medicines and groceries, some are seen buying vegetables directly from the farmers and some are busy sticking labels on government-provided ration kits. Now, all this is good, but it doesn’t really fulfil their job description. Functions of MPs and MLAs MPs and MLAs perform two main functions:  Legislation: Pass laws Oversight: Ensure government performs as expected Oversight includes monitoring government programmes, identifying gaps…

An institution in decline is not a pretty sight.  Particularly when it is a civic body responsible for the quality of life of vast segments of the population.  This is what is happening to Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike, which has just presented its budget for the current year.   Of course, there’s more to development than figures.  Nevertheless, the Annual Financial Statement is a great way of assessing recent performance and future plans.  From both points of view, going by the BBMP’s figures, the prospects for Bengaluru are bleak. Budget analysis usually starts with three questions.  Have promises made in…

As we cover the COVID-19 outbreak and the effect it has had on various sectors and communities, we also asked our readers -- individuals, citizen groups and RWAs -- to explain how they have dealt with the COVID-19 crisis in a constructive manner. In this article, a resident of CR park in Delhi narrates how her community has adapted to challenges of the times, how members of the community are helping each other, how they are reaching out to senior citizens and making sure that everyone comes out of it, together, as a family.  It all started with a WhatsApp…

In this series, individuals, citizen groups and RWAs explain how they have dealt with the COVID-19 crisis in a constructive manner. In the fourth part of the series, the president of an apartment association describes the measures they took. COVID-19 pandemic has tragically brought home the truth of the age-old Sanskrit saying Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, meaning 'the world is one family’. With this thought in mind, the management committee of Century Saras, an apartment complex in Yelahanka New Town, formed a task force for dealing with the COVID-19 threat immediately after the national lockdown was announced. The task force took the…

Co-authored by Angarika Guha and Senthil S In Part 1 of this series, we looked at the difficulties migrant workers face in accessing food during the lockdown. In this part, we explore how citizens themselves can help solve this problem. Even as NGOs and government agencies are involved in providing immediate relief (cooked food or dry ration) to the most vulnerable, the gap in their efforts is in the last-mile delivery of services. Janata audits can be a way to fix this. It is important to document local conditions of the community to which you are providing relief. Accurate, high…

Co-authored by Angarika Guha and Senthil S Amidst the shiny offices and gated complexes of a prominent IT corridor in the city lies Chinappa layout, Mahadevpura, home to close to 600 migrant workers from West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Nepal. Scattered across the area, they live inside blue tarpaulin tents, small concrete sheds, inside godowns filled with plastic, scrap metal and tin, or between the bamboo poles in construction sites. Bricks, tiles, garbage, waste, scrap, cooking, cleaning, sifting, constructing, clearing - their work is crucial to the daily fabric of life in the city. The lockdown caught them unawares.…

India’s COVID-19 lockdown, one of the strictest in human history, was recently extended by the Prime Minister of India until the 3rd of May. Many stranded migrants waiting for public transport to take them back home or for production activities and markets to resume functioning were disappointed one more time, after the PM’s announcement on April 14th.  Along with poor migrants, other economically weaker sections in the city have been struggling for survival in the slums of cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Surat and Bangalore. This extension would seem like a terrible fait accompli and a final nail in the coffin…

India’s COVID-19 lockdown, one of the strictest in human history, was recently extended by the Prime Minister of India until the 3rd of May. Many stranded migrants waiting for public transport to take them back home or for production activities and markets to resume functioning were disappointed one more time, after the PM’s announcement on April 14th.  Along with poor migrants, other economically weaker sections in the city have been struggling for survival in the slums of cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Surat and Bangalore. This extension would seem like a terrible fait accompli and a final nail in the coffin…

As Karnataka continues its battle against the COVID-19 pandemic with a two week extension of the lockdown, its leaders would do well to draw lessons from what came to be called the Bangalore Plague in 1898, which killed 10 percent of Bengaluru's population and 2.6 per cent in the rest of Mysore Kingdom. The then-colonial government had initially responded to the calamity with force, before realising its ineffectiveness and changing its response to successfully contain the outbreak. Today, it would be worth a look at how the then-Mysore state emerged victorious in its fight against the plague. What changed? In…