GENRE: In Focus

On January 13 2019, the President gave his nod and brought into law The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty Fourth Amendment) Bill 2019. The Act amends Articles 15 and Article 16 of the Constitution, and adds clauses where the government can make special provisions for economically weaker sections (EWS) of citizens and provide them with reservations up to 10 percent in higher educational institutions including private aided or unaided institutions (other than minority education institutions) as well as in initial appointments in government services. In popular parlance, this is being bandied as 'upper-caste reservation.' Reservations or quotas, the dominant mode of…

Sushil was attending 10th standard at the school in his village, when his parents decided to move to a city. They had found seasonal work in a brick kiln there. Sushil’s only option was to move to the kiln site and work alongside his parents. He had given up hopes of completing high school education, when he realised that other child labourers at the kiln were going to a ‘classroom’ located within the site. This learning centre was set up by Aide et Action, an NGO that works for the education of migrant children. Sushil attended classes there, and later,…

On a bright winter Sunday, you may feel the warm sun beckoning you. It seems to say: Take your car out and enjoy my glory even more. Surely, there would be little traffic on a holiday. But not in Delhi. Especially not if you plan to drive from South Delhi to Gurgaon or vice versa, through the mess that is the Rao Tula Ram Marg flyover. The beautiful sunny day soon becomes a sweaty anger-spewing, abuse-hurling one. And this is the road that connects South Delhi to the airport, which should have a smooth hassle free ride. The bottleneck you…

In mid December 2018, the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s performance audit on Solid Waste Management (SWM) in 35 test-checked Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in Karnataka was tabled at the state assembly. The report painted a rather sorry picture of the way these civic bodies had been going about the task of solid waste management in their municipalities and called out instances of flawed collection, ineffectual bans on plastic, faulty handling of e-waste and unauthorised slaughter houses among various other gaps. However, that is not where the CAG indictment of the ULBs ended. As per Paragraph 7.2 of…

Wooden cutlery, cloth and paper bags, steel containers to replace disposables. The implementation of the plastic ban is increasingly becoming visible in all quarters of life in Chennai, as traders, hoteliers and the general public are slowly taking to eco-friendly alternatives. When it comes to businesses, there have been mixed results, in terms of adherence to the ban on plastic. Big food brands such as Adyar Anand Bhavan, Fassos and The Black Box have switched to eco-friendly packaging material such as cloth bags, paper cartons and wooden spoons, while some are still to comply. The transition Close observation of the…

Priti, a Class VII student at an aided school in Bengaluru, hoists a schoolbag that looks like a ton of bricks on her back. She flares up when told that the central government has recommended reduction in the weight of schoolbags. "Oh, really?" she asks, indignantly. "Then why didn't our teacher tell us about it, and why am I carrying so many textbooks, pencil boxes, art material, sports equipment, bottles and boxes?" A cursory examination of her schoolbag reveals the list that she blurted out. There were not just books, but many extraneous materials that did not appear really useful.…

With urban centres across the country generating around 1.45 lakh metric tonnes of solid waste a day, denizens are no strangers to lectures on segregating recyclables and composting organic waste. Increasing pressure on the urban environment is forcing the state to take cognisance and look for alternatives to deal with the mounting solid waste problem. Mid-2018, the Tamil Nadu government announced a ban on all single-use plastics starting January 1, 2019 in a bid to ease the pressures of pollution on the state. While there’s no denying that stringent laws and penal provisions are required to ensure compliance, these are…

Newspaper headlines at various times during the year 2018 highlighted what may well be called the "worst water crisis" in the country's history till date. Cities faced various issues such as flooding, deficit rainfall, poor drinking water supply, encroached water bodies and untreated sewage, and all these were considered in the preparation of the ‘Composite Water Management Index’ (CWMI)  by the NITI Aayog (National Institute for Transforming India) released in June. The report makes ominous predictions: By 2050, the demand for water in the country might exceed supply, and 21 cities might run out of every drop of groundwater by 2020. About 40…

In the last week of 2018, a hurriedly planned public consultation arranged by the Department of Municipal Administration of Karnataka to frame an updated Solid Waste Management Policy for the state had to be called off, following sharp criticism by activists and pourakarmikas (waste collectors). Protesters objected to the very short notice given for the consultation and the draft being circulated on the day of the meeting. For those wondering why the Department chose to act in such haste, it could be because of the negative observations of the constitutional auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), following…

It is 4 pm. A man comes in a bike, parks it near the HOPCOMS shop near Mariyappanapalya Park in Rajajinagar, Bengaluru. He walks towards the water vending machine nearby with a 20 litre water can in hand, pays, fills it and leaves the spot. Just as he is leaving, we ask him what he does with the water. He says he uses it in his panipuri business. He is a street vendor whose business depends on this safe water dispensed by the vending machine, popularly known as water ATM. This water ATM was started in 2015 as a BBMP…