EDITORS' PICK

Gangaram Hivrale has been making trips to the ward office to ask about the “promised” rehabilitation. However, he is yet to get a positive response. It’s been six years since his family was evicted. In 2017, the Bombay High Court had ordered removal of houses for the security of Tansa Pipeline and also ordered rehabilitation based on the 2000 cutoff date for informal housing.  “Every time we go to the ward office to ask about our status of Annexure-2 finalization, we are told there are no houses available in the city. We have all the documents yet, we have to…

“I had sleepless nights for months, even now when I recall those days, I feel uneasy,” says Neelam Lilaramani, a senior citizen residing in Goregaon - a suburb of Mumbai. Last year, as she was scrolling through her Facebook app, she stumbled upon an advertisement for a dress that she liked. She added her address, checked for payment details, and chose the ‘cash on delivery’ option to avoid any unwanted online scams - and then clicked ‘buy’. A few days later, when the parcel arrived, she wasn't at home. On his third attempt, the delivery person handed the parcel, Neelam…

Kavitha and Jyothi are domestic workers from Tamil Nadu who have been living in North Bengaluru for two decades, raised families here, and speak Kannada fluently. However, only Jyothi can access the free bus scheme. Kavitha doesn’t have an Aadhar card with a Karnataka address. The Congress government’s free bus scheme, Shakti, is highly popular and has been lauded across the media. But the benefits of the scheme will not reach all women. Migrant women in the state who are not domiciled, will be left out of it. Free bus travel has opened up the city for women, say activists.…

Ramalingam*, a sexagenarian, was travelling alone from Madurai to Chennai on a Sunday morning and reached the Egmore railway station. As he was walking on the foot-over-bridge to take the metro rail, he went into a sudden cardiac arrest. While the public tried to help him and dial 108 ambulance service, not many were aware of the emergency medical centre inside the station's premises that is exclusively meant for attending to medical emergency cases in Chennai Egmore railway station. A railway staff noticed the crowd and intimated the medical staff at the centre. A female and a male nurse immediately…

For Sowndharya Gopi, a trans person who grew up in the housing unit of the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board (TNUHDB) in Royapuram, those tenements constituted the centre of her life.  "I have faced discrimination for being a trans person all my life but the people in those housing units, who were my kith and kin, were the first among the few people who accepted me for who I am," says Sowndharya. Recalling the days of her family moving from the thatched huts to the housing unit, Sowndharya says that as many as 240 families living in the nearby…

On June 11th, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah boarded a BMTC bus, turned conductor for a few minutes, and issued the first free tickets to women passengers as part of the Shakti scheme. Free bus travel is one of the five guarantees of the newly formed Congress government and the first to be fulfilled. While the scheme has been appreciated by many women, several issues need to be resolved to sustain it in the long term, according to public transport advocates. Launch of the Shakti scheme. Pic: Twitter/BMTC_Bengaluru Bengaluru Bus Prayanikara Vedike (BBPV), a group lobbying for better bus service in the…

It is that time of the year again when students of grade 10 are scrambling to secure admissions in junior colleges. The application process is in full swing, and they're eager to move onto the 11th grade. There is a large number of students, who are not at all bothered to apply to junior colleges. Instead, they are trying to secure a place in the top coaching institutes for JEE and NEET training. This is what is widely known as the 'integrated coaching' structure. In a practice that has been going on for years, students who want to appear for…

In part one of this series, we looked at how parking and riding vehicles on footpaths is hazardous to pedestrians, and the legal provisions addressing this. This article will explore the budgetary allocation to footpaths and the possible solutions to improving footpath infrastructure. Bad footpaths invariably have a larger impact on certain vulnerable groups, like senior citizens, children and persons with disabilities. Infact, footpaths are never designed for pedestrians such as pregnant women, or women taking their newborn babies out on a pram, toddlers or senior citizens, eliminating the most vulnerable from using and accessing public spaces. Most footpaths in…

Every year the new academic year begins June and July for most colleges. However, this year, it's not the usual reopening of institutes. Students, parents as well as educators are busy understanding the possible implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) in Mumbai. Much of this uncertainty and confusion is expected to clear up in the coming weeks. As per the NEP 2020, schools must implement 5+3+3+4 years of education system. However, the Maharashtra State Board, announced that the 10th and 12th standard board exams i.e. the (10+2) system will continue till the academic year 2024-2025. This rules out any…

A recent post by the Greater Chennai Corporation on Instagram read: "Avoid stepping out between 12 pm and 3 pm" to escape the harsh effects of the heat wave. However, Raasathi*, a GCC conservancy worker, says that she begins at 5.30 am and ends work at 2 pm. There has been no intervention to change their work timings from the civic body. She is forced to go to work during these hours, failing which she will not get that day's wages. Many of the civic body's own projects have workers working during these hours, under the menacing stare of the…