EDITORS' PICK

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed India’s evolving child-care ecosystem to the brink of collapse with preschools and playschools shuttered since March last year and no new admissions this academic year. According to a UNICEF report, this has impacted 28 million preschool children in anganwadi centres across the country. But while the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development issued an order in November last year, allowing all states and Union Territories to reopen anganwadis outside containment zones with immediate effect, there is still total confusion among parents, schools and policy makers on the reopening of private preschools.Having seen thriving business pre-COVID, with…

Ever since she first read about Srinagar’s famous houseboats, Meenakshi, a resident of Pune, had wanted to stay in one. On August 23, she along with her husband landed in Srinagar and drove to the Dal Lake where they had booked a houseboat named Peacock. “After spending a day, I fell ill,” recalls Meenakshi. “I had severe cold, cough and fever. I wasn’t able to move out my bed. The houseboat owner called the boat ambulance and I was taken to the main road first and then to the city hospital. Luckily, I tested negative for COVID. The doctors then…

The Centre's Ministry of Environment, Forest  & Climate Change recently notified the  Plastic Waste Management (PWM) Amendment Rules, 2021, to phase out certain types of single-use plastics by 2022. The ban applies to the manufacture, sale, use, import and handling  of some plastic items. The amendment is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment of eliminating single-use plastic by 2022. What is single-use plastic? According to the PWM Rules, 2021, ‘single-use plastic commodity’ means a plastic item intended to be used once, before being disposed of or recycled.  The Expert Committee on ‘Single Use Plastics’, constituted by the Department of…

India’s rapid urbanization has led to a significant rise in informal urban settlements, with over 35% of the country’s urban population occupying them. Characterized by makeshift infrastructure and poor hygiene conditions, these settlements are often the only affordable option for people who also work unsteady, non-contractual jobs. Women in these informal settlements, in particular, play a huge role in protecting the physical and financial health of their families.  Under the shadow of potential eviction and financial struggles, these women are almost always engaged in labour — both paid and unpaid. In many cases, their homes — comprising single rooms for…

Early this month, Chennai-based journalist Greeshma Kuthar found herself being stalked by a stranger at a prominent junction in Anna Nagar. The stalker stopped her and tried to initiate a conversation; Greeshma did not engage with him and simply rode ahead. He sped up and came in front of her scooter. Following a verbal exchange, she filed a stalking complaint with the police against the man, who was eventually nabbed by the police. Read the entire thread here: https://twitter.com/jeegujja/status/1435490467555131392?s=20 Greeshma, however, is not alone. In fact, in her tweet thread, she mentions that several of her friends too have been…

Bengaluru is not typically imagined to be a hotspot of biodiversity, and the urban biodiversity here often gets missed in conversations about the environment. The city's water bodies and green spaces, apart from being recreational spaces, are a home to biodiversity as well as a source of livelihood for many citizens. In this set of illustrations, we examine the components of Bengaluru’s lakes, and get a glimpse of what lies beneath the concrete layers and dense human population in our city. Every artwork has elements of household and construction waste that the artist found in her neighbourhood in Bengaluru. Look closely…

Can you think of a shared garden space in the city where you plan along with your neighbours to grow local produce in a sustainable way? Imagine such a space in the heart of the city that affords opportunities to learn and share your knowledge, while simultaneously welcoming the young and old alike to relax and connect with nature. The month old community garden in Kasturba Nagar serves as all this and more for the residents who have banded together to create a green space in their locality. Citizen Matters spoke with Samyuktha Kannan, one of the members behind the…

With the IT industry witnessing a boom, Chennai's demographic landscape is rapidly changing due to large scale migration of employees from other states and countries, giving the city a cosmopolitan character. But at the core of the city's society and culture, the sentiment towards the Tamil language remains intense and deep-rooted. Learning Tamil, therefore, not only helps avoid communication barriers during regular daily interactions, it also wins more friends. Tamil is one of the six "classical" Indian languages. For a language to be declared classical, it should meet three criteria: ancient origins, independent tradition and having a considerable body of ancient…

It is not every day that the citizens of Gurgaon leave work on a Tuesday morning to congregate at the approximately 45 m-high Bandhwari landfill, shared by Gurgaon and Faridabad, where over 2000 tons of mixed waste is dumped every day. On the morning of August 31st, however, rain could not deter close to 200 residents of villages from Mangar, Bandhwari, Gwal Pahari and the city of Gurgaon, who gathered there to attend a public hearing called by the Haryana Pollution Control Board (HSPCB). The hearing sought citizen’s thoughts on the proposed expansion of the Waste to Energy Plant (WtE)…

The Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC) proposed the Inner Ring Metro (IRM), a fully underground 34-km-long metro line to be completed by 2031, as phase 3 in the Comprehensive Mobility Plan of 2019. IRM would comprise 23 new metro stations and six interchanges, considering the completion of all other phases of the metro project. This line was suggested as it connects all major commercial and educational hubs, which might help reduce traffic congestion at the city level. Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Transportation Research Lab evaluated this Metro line proposal in February 2020. In a report, they concluded that the…