GENRE: Explainers

As the third COVID wave appears imminent in the country, robust communication strategies by government agencies become increasingly important. Public health messaging — in both form and content — is an extremely critical component of the response to a pandemic. Access to information about COVID guidelines, vaccination centres and helpline numbers posed a challenge during the first and second waves for a large section of the population, especially the digitally illiterate, marginalised and senior citizens. The avenues of information in the form of trusted media sources and bulletins from government websites seem to be unreachable for these categories. “Only a…

It's snake time of the year! Flower pots, piles of garden leaves, rubble heaps and discarded pipes are a few of the places where snakes feel safe. During the rainy season, they leave their often water-logged hideouts to get some warmth in the sun, which is why we're more likely to see them in our urban habitats at this time. We often see the staff of Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC) working in areas where snakes are known to be found, and this was something that had been bothering us for a while. Whether sweeping the streets, or clearing the weeds…

Thanks to the pandemic, traditional big fat Indian weddings have now become small, muted family events. As social distancing and restriction of movement became the norm in the COVID era, weddings changed too. Many couples have still gone ahead with their matrimonial plans over the past few months, and more plan to tie the knot in the weeks and months ahead but even they must adhere to the current COVID protocol for weddings as laid down by the states.  Even though lockdown norms have been eased in Chennai, things are not entirely back to the old normal. Citizens must be…

After years of preparation and drafting, the union government has finally given the green light to a Model Tenancy Act (MTA) 2021, which aims to make rent laws more equitable for landlord and tenant, and smoothen the processing of renting a home. Such an act had become necessary to achieve the target of constructing 20 million houses for the urban poor by 2022 under the Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana. The 2011 census had recorded a total of 246.69 million households, of which 68% were rural and 32% urban, leaving 63.67 million urban and rural families without adequate housing. In India,…

The pandemic has not only been a health emergency, but also a huge blow on the economic front. Many people lost their jobs while many more have faced pay cuts. Some like R Sunitha stepped up to the challenge by starting their own business ventures. Sunitha, who lost her job, became a home chef during the lockdown. "I took it very hard initially when I lost my job. But I knew I had to pull my act together to earn during the pandemic. I applied for a trade licence and started my own food business and became a home chef,"…

In the run up to the monsoons, tree trimming or pruning in Mumbai is a regular affair. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Garden Department takes care of the trees on the roads and public spaces, and it used to do this in individual housing societies as well, on request. However, BMC recently announced that societies would now need to take the responsibility for the trimming of the trees in their premises, and bear the costs, after getting BMC permission. A few days ago, the exercise of "tree trimming " was carried out in the society where I live, Gitanjali Cooperative Housing…

According to experts, a mutant variant of SARS-Cov-2, B.1.617.2 — now named Delta variant — was a major reason that led to the devastating second wave across the country. First identified in October in India,  it is now the dominant variant in the country, responsible for 80% of new cases. “It travelled from south to north along the western states — from Kerala to Kashmir, before spreading to the central and eastern states,” says Dr N K Arora, chairman of the COVID working group under the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI). The Delta variant has mutations in its…

With Metro rail coming up along many stretches, Bengaluru is set to lose a large number of trees. But many trees have also been marked for transplantation. BMRCL (Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd) has been giving work orders to contractors to transplant these trees. Currently, BMRCL is the only agency undertaking tree transplantation in Bengaluru, says BBMP Tree Officer H S Ranganatha Swamy. In Bengaluru, as in other Indian cities, government agencies had rejected the idea of transplantation for years, citing high costs and low survival rates. In fact, when 10 trees were transplanted from the first Metro stretch in…

The Mumbai civic body – Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) also known as Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) provides municipal services to the city. Divided into 24 administrative wards, it is headed by the Mayor, who is the city’s first citizen and the ceremonial head; and the Municipal Commissioner, who works as the chief executive authority. While the 24 wards are decentralized for the convenience of the city's administration, each ward has its own ward office and ward officers (Assistant Municipal Commissioners). Presently, Mrs. Kishori Pednekar is the Mayor and Iqbal Singh Chahal, a 1989-batch IAS officer is the Municipal…

[Translated by Sandhya Raju] சென்னை பள்ளிகளில் நடந்த முந்தைய மற்றும் சமீபத்திய பாலியல் தொல்லைகள் குறித்த புகார்கள், பெரும் அதிர்வலைகளை எழுப்பியுள்ளன. பாதுகாப்பான இடமாக பள்ளிகள் இல்லை என்பதையே இது உணர்த்துகிறது. ஆனால், ஒரு சில ஆசிரியர்கள் இது போன்ற குற்ற செயல்களில் ஈடுபடுவதற்கு பள்ளிகள் பொறுப்பேற்க முடியுமா? பாதிக்கப்பட்டவர்களுக்கு நீதி கிடைக்க கல்வி நிறுவனங்கள் என்ன செய்ய வேண்டும். முக்கியமாக, இது போன்ற சம்பவங்கள் நிகழாமல் தடுக்க என்ன செய்ய வேண்டும்? சிறார் நீதி (குழந்தைகளின் பராமரிப்பு மற்றும் பாதுகாப்பு) சட்டம், 2015 படி, குழந்தைகளுக்கு அருகாமையில் இருந்து, தேவைப்படும் கல்வி அல்லது பயிற்சியை வழங்குவதில் எந்தவொரு பள்ளி, நிறுவனம் அல்லது தனிநபர்கள் ஈடுபட்டுள்ளனரோ, அவர்களின் பாதுகாப்பை உறுதிப்படுத்த பொறுப்புணர்வு மற்றும் சொந்த பொறுப்பு ஏற்க வேண்டும் என கூறுகிறது. பள்ளி வளாகத்திற்குள், பள்ளி பேருந்தில், ஆன்லைன் அமர்வுகளின் போது அல்லது மாணவர்களுடன் பள்ளி ஊழியர்களின் எந்தவொரு ஈடுபாட்டிலும்,…