GENRE: Explainers

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report of 2019 indicates that every day, 35 people die due to fire accidents in India, with over half being home fires. Fires in high rises are not very common, but they almost always make it to the media headlines because of the damage they cause. Fire safety in apartment complexes is usually not on the list of priorities of either the builder or the flat owners. This is because fire safety systems do not impact our day-to-day lives, unlike water pipes, lifts, lighting, landscaping, garbage, drainage, etc. When a fire breaks out beyond…

Waterlogging in Mumbai is an annual affair, met with cynicism and apathy. The city’s insufficient drainage system, unsustainable urbanisation, reduction of green cover and natural barriers are enlisted among the top reasons for the floods.  But this information is often too dense or inadequate to understand why citizens can’t spend one monsoon without wading through (and living in) murky rainwater mixed with sewage and solid waste. Citizen Matters explains:   Let’s begin with the topography of the city. Welded together through land reclamation, the city is shaped like a saucer. It has low lines of hills on either sides: Malabar Hill…

“Biomedical waste management was already a big challenge before COVID, and now it’s an even bigger one. One of the most common queries we get from member-apartments is on COVID waste management,” says Vikram Rai, General Secretary of the Bangalore Apartments’ Federation (BAF), a collective of over 500 apartment RWAs (Resident Welfare Associations) in the city. Bengaluru has struggled with waste segregation for long. But improper and irresponsible disposal of COVID waste endangers other citizens, more so waste collectors. If you are in home quarantine or isolation, how should you deal with solid waste? Should you segregate waste, and whom…

Plasma therapy, also known as ‘convalescent plasma therapy’, is an experimental mode of treatment. It uses the blood plasma donated by patients who have recovered from COVID-19, as their bodies would have developed protective antibodies against the virus, to treat those with the virus. Usually used on patients who are not responding to conventional treatment, plasma therapy is currently helping many COVID-19 patients recover. How antibodies work When one contracts an infection, especially a viral infection, their recovery depends on the production of antibodies to fight the antigen (the virus, which in the current case, is COVID-19). These antibodies are…

Ashok Raj, a resident of Vettuvankeni, was recently cheated of Rs 4,500 by a city-based manpower agency providing domestic househelp services. The help never turned up even after the money was paid and multiple calls made to the agency did not evoke a response. Ashok soon realised he had been cheated and came to know that the agency has been engaged in serial fraudulent activities over the past few years. He subsequently got in touch with other victims. Collectively, they visited J8 Neelankarai police station to file a case against a manpower agency under cheating/fraudulent charges.  The officials initially were…

Translated by Sandhya Raju புது தில்லியை அடுத்து, ₹2.34 கோடி செலவில் சென்னை ராஜீவ் காந்தி அரசு மருத்துவமனையில் பிளாஸ்மா வங்கி ஜூலை மாதம் 24-ம் தேதி தொடங்கப்பட்டது. கோவிட் தடுப்பூசி இன்னும் சோதனை செயல்பாட்டில் உள்ள நிலையில் இந்நோய்க்கு நிரூபிக்கப்பட்ட சிகிச்சை இன்னும் இல்லை என்றாலும், பிளாஸ்மா சிகிச்சை நிகழ்வுகள் சில சாதகமான முடிவுகளை அளித்துள்ளது. இருப்பினும் மருத்துவ பரிசோதனைகள் தொடர்ந்து நடைபெற்று வருகின்றன. கான்வேலசன்ட் பிளாஸ்மா சிகிச்சை என்றால் என்ன? பிளாஸ்மா வங்கி செயல்பாடு என்ன? யார் பிளாஸ்மா கொடையாளி ஆகலாம்? சென்னையில் எங்கு பிளாஸ்மா நன்கொடை அளிக்கலாம்? இது போன்ற பல்வேறு பொதுவான கேள்விகளுக்கு பதில் அளிக்கும் வகையில் இந்த வழிகாட்டி தொகுக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது? பிளாஸ்மா சிகிச்சை என்றால் என்ன? கோவிட் தொற்றை இது முற்றிலும் போக்குமா? தொற்று ஏற்பட்டு குணமான நபரின் உடலிலிருந்து பிளாஸ்மா ( இரத்தத்தின் உள்ள வைக்கோல் நிற, திரவக் கூறு) எடுக்கப்பட்டு…

Wearing Bluetooth earbuds and facing a mobile screen Gowri Gnanasambanthan strains to hold a forearm plank. Her instructor joins in on a WhatsApp video call, teaching her the right way of doing it.  Ever since the lockdown in March, Gowri's apartment terrace has become her gym. “I can’t work out alone.  I have a WhatsApp group with a close circle of friends where we share videos, take on challenges and work out together. My husband is my workout partner. This motivates me a lot," she says. Gowri has not let stress and boredom inflicted by the lockdown disrupt her fitness…

Every evening, A M Aravind, a birdwatcher in Madipakkam, ensures he spends at least an hour hanging around his balcony or terrace. The lockdown may have temporarily halted many of his regular activities, but not his bird watching hobby. Though he could not travel to the woodland edges or the marshes, Aravind has spotted over 35 species in his neighbourhood habitat over the past three months.  Like Aravind, many city residents have taken to balcony birding or backyard birding this season, to enjoy a break from the mundane routine of the lockdown. The high-pitched, loud and persistent calls of the…

Many lakes in Bengaluru, such as Kaikondrahalli, Kasavanahalli and Kalkere lakes, have foamed before. But the quantity of foam in Varthur and Bellandur lakes are alarmingly high.  In our previous article, we saw that fire occurs in Bellandur and Varthur lakes mainly because about 40% of the city's sewage is discharged into the catchment areas of these lakes. Apart from sewage, industrial effluents and solid waste are also dumped into these lakes. In some circumstances, this can cause the formation of foam. Foam in both Bellandur and Varthur lakes usually form during the pre-monsoon and monsoon season, when there are heavy…

After New Delhi, Chennai got its first plasma bank at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) on July 22nd at a cost of Rs 2.34 crore. While a vaccine for COVID is still in the works and a proven cure for COVID remains elusive, convalescent plasma therapy has yielded some positive results in cases, although clinical trials of the same are still underway.  But, what is convalescent plasma therapy? How does a plasma bank work? Who can donate plasma, and where in our city can it be done? We attempt to address these and other common queries from citizens…