EDITORS' PICK

For more than a 100 years now (since 1911 to be specific), the world has celebrated March 8th as International Women's Day. Every year, the day serves to highlight the strides taken by women around the world and also put together an idea of what needs to be the way forward. The idea of an equal world for men and women is still Utopian, but everyday we take some steps to achieve it, though the fight for womens' rights is still at a very nascent stage. But for 37-year-old Sumangali Balakrishna, the idea of a world with equal rights is…

From six confirmed cases to 31 (as on March 6th), it has taken less than a week, even as suspected cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continue to be reported across cities every day. How to contain the spread in a country of a billion plus, with obvious infrastructural and surveillance capacity challenges, is one of the greatest concerns in domestic public health circles today.  The Indian administration has taken a number of steps over the last one week to ensure that the spread of the disease can be arrested. Primary schools in the capital have been asked to…

First mooted in 2002, the Pune Metro is finally ready for launch in 2020. Being built by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, the inauguration of Pune metro’s first line from Tukaram Nagar to Phugewadi is scheduled for April. This stretch, part of the Pimpri-Chinchwad to Swargate Line-1 is set to be functional by March 2020, according to union minister Prakash Javadekar. Javadekar also claimed that all three lines of the metro are likely to be functional by 2022. These claims, however, were refuted by the MahaMetro, the special purpose vehicle set up to build and run the Pune metro. “The…

On a gruelling hot Monday afternoon, Abdul S wakes up from a nap on his rickshaw parked on the Wall Tax Road. A few yards away, the Chennai Central Railway Station is abuzz with passengers. As scores of people walk in and out of the station, Abdul observes them expectantly, and hopes that at least one person from the crowd will approach him for a ride. Abdul belongs to the dying community of rickshaw drivers who bring back memories of the good old days in the Madras that was. The present, however, hardly brings any cheer for them, as they…

Sivaraman*, (name changed) a conservancy worker, was on regular duty last month, collecting garbage in Chrompet. Just as he was handling some 'household waste' collected from a clinic in the locality, a syringe pricked his finger. "I could not bend my finger as it seemed to have been numbed by some traces of anaesthetic still present. I reported it to my head and the doctor from the clinic was warned. They were asked to dispose of bio-medical waste according to the rules,” the worker said. This, however, is not a one-off incident in Chennai. Improper disposal of bio-medical waste is…

Of all the headlines made by the state visit of US President, Donald Trump, the one that caught my attention was a news report about five langurs being included in his security detail during his visit to Agra to deal with the monkey menace. It provided great fodder to social media and meme makers as the jokes wrote themselves. But now that the noise has died down after the return of the President, it is time we looked at the magnitude of the problem, because as the residents of these cities will tell you, it is no laughing matter. So,…

Dressed in white and khaki attire, he lets the vehicles at the Anna Rotary junction (under the Gemini flyover) pass towards Nungambakkam. It is 1 pm on a weekday and the mercury level is high. Perspiration trickles down the forehead of the serious-faced traffic cop, who stops a two-wheeler and penalises the rider for not wearing a helmet. Meet C Palani,  a stern, dark-skinned, 48-year-old Traffic Sub-Inspector from the E3 Teynampet Police Station who has manned traffic at various spots over a 10-km stretch in Teynampet, a busy area that is in proximity to the AIADMK office and the Chief…

Pedestrians are the most vulnerable road users amongst all the others. In fact, studies on pedestrianization by Wilbur Smith Associates for the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) found that 28% of the population was estimated to be walking population. Yet, Indian cities have become quite unsafe for this walking population.  In a survey carried out by Central Road Research Institute, 9 out 10 pedestrians felt unsafe while crossing roads. The Law Commission Report on "Legal Reforms to Combat Road Accidents" has also stated that 53% of road deaths are among pedestrians. Indian cities are struggling constantly to provide…

Mumbai, the country's financial capital, is also home to Asia’s largest slum, with a majority of its citizens living in this and the many other slums that co-exist alongside the city’s many luxury skyscrapers. Over the years, successive state governments have announced many grandiose plans to replace these slums with low cost housing. But the slums, lacking in basic infrastructure and amenities like water and electricity continue to proliferate, even as huge numbers of luxury housing units remain unsold.  In fact, Greater Mumbai has the highest share of slum households in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR - 79% with 11,01,655…

Mumbai, the country's financial capital, is also home to Asia’s largest slum, with a majority of its citizens living in this and the many other slums that co-exist alongside the city’s many luxury skyscrapers. Over the years, successive state governments have announced many grandiose plans to replace these slums with low cost housing. But the slums, lacking in basic infrastructure and amenities like water and electricity continue to proliferate, even as huge numbers of luxury housing units remain unsold.  In fact, Greater Mumbai has the highest share of slum households in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR - 79% with 11,01,655…