GENRE: In Focus

“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…

If you are heading towards Perungudi, chances are you can feel a stark difference in the odour in the air. The unwelcome scent of pungent air is all thanks to the Perungudi dump yard. "But people residing in Perungudi are used to the smell," says P Sajeevan, a resident of the area. Air, water and land are being polluted due to the presence of the dump yard. The Greater Chennai Corporation has been dumping waste in the 200-acre dump yard in Perungudi for around three to four decades. Of the total 5200 MT of waste generated in Chennai, 2400 MT…

“Though we are enrolled by conservancy contractors to sweep dust and garbage off the streets, we end up clearing construction and demolition (C&D) waste that has been disposed of illegally in a few places which should be cleared by a separate private agency,” says Manjula*, a conservancy worker in south Chennai.  As per the Solid Waste Management (SWM) by-laws, clearing of construction and demolition waste does not fall under the purview of the routine SWM operations managed by the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC). Despite there being fines ranging from Rs 2000 to Rs 5000 for illegal dumping of construction and…

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…

Crowding and congestion on Bengaluru roads push pedestrians to the narrow, potholed and often non-existent footpaths. Footpaths are one of the most critical prerequisites for a more liveable Bengaluru, but they continue to be a neglected priority. A large number of citizens who die in road accidents are pedestrians. With an increasing number of pedestrian deaths, it becomes imperative to address the lack of walkable footpaths and the necessity to maintain them. Vehicles on footpaths Of all the issues plaguing footpaths in Bengaluru, the most prominent is the indiscriminate parking of vehicles. Parking of two-wheelers on footpaths has been a…

In a bid to increase the green cover in Chennai, the Greater Chennai Corporation started setting up Miyawaki forests in different parts of the city in 2020. It has been three years since these green spaces cropped up. As per the last Annual Forest Report in 2021, Chennai has 7.24% of forest cover out of its total geographical area. The report also notes that the forest cover has increased by 26% from 2011 to 2021 in Chennai. What is a Miyawaki forest? It is a Japanese method of creating a forest by planting native trees close to each other to…

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…