GENRE: In Focus

At a time when many families still advise their women to maintain a low profile and adjust to situations, here are a few who chose to walk the path less trodden. Living the theme of International Women’s Day 2018 --#Pressforprogress -- are hundreds of women in Chennai, who have been working silently towards transforming society. Today is as good a time as any other to acknowledge and celebrate such women, who have broken the shackles of gender stereotypes. Citizen Matters turns the spotlight on six such women from various strata of society -- from a tough police official to a…

Activists and citizens in Bengaluru are incensed that the government just dissolved the Karnataka Lake Conservation and Development Authority (KLCDA) without even a discussion in the assembly, on March 1, 2018. The Legislative Assembly quietly passed the Tank Development Act when the members were not even present in full strength. It came as a surprise, nay shock, that the lakes needed to be handed over to the Minor Irrigation Department (MID), rather than the environment ministry, which it is intended for. The act is expected to come into effect in the next three months. A KLCDA official says that he…

On a humid Thursday afternoon, a group of students, with torn maroon uniforms and bruises on their malnourished bodies, make their way out from the primary school in Perumbakkam resettlement colony.  Bunking the first class after the lunch break, students are busy making plans for the day. While one student suggests fishing in a swamp opposite the settlement, another wants to play cricket. The teacher-in-charge at the primary school turns a blind eye to the mass bunking, perhaps because it would take the load off her shoulders. It is only the noise made by the kids that could give you a…

Do today’s modern marathon races generate a lot of the garbage and pollution that they are geared to fight? That is the question floated by a new campaign,  ‘Green the Mumbai Marathon’ started by Shilpi Sahu, a Bengaluru-based green activist who has been participating in races for almost six to seven years. She confirms that every race leads to a huge pile-up of plastic bottles, plates and tetra packs that have been used to serve water and food to runners and volunteers. With about 20,000 to 40,000 runners dumping plastic waste into lakes or nearby parks and crowding available spaces, a…

On February 17, 2018, around 30 people gathered at the Chromepet bus stand to protest against the opening of a proposed new Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation Limited (TASMAC) outlet cum bar. The shop is set to be established on a narrow lane by the foot-over bridge on Grand Southern Trunk (GST) road. The locality is surrounded by a thickly-populated, commercial and residential area, thronged by lakhs of people every day. In addition, the shop is in the vicinity of several educational institutions, the Chromepet bus stand and a foot-over bridge that leads to the railway station. Given the scenario,…

It is 4:15 a.m. and this is the scene at the gates of the Samta Nagar Post Office in Kandivali East, Mumbai. Men (mostly) just hanging around on the street, doing pretty much nothing. Chances are, they’ve done this before, but not early enough… the reason for this repeat visit. As I approach the group, Hukam Singh greets me. We were among the unlucky ones, not in the “first 20” of the previous morning. “Madam ka naam lick do bhai… athara” (write madam’s name brother… eighteen), said one. Yeah! I was in the first 20. This is probably the scene at…

How many of us remember our 10th and 12th board exam marks? Do they really matter now? Do we know how successful those rankers are, who ceremoniously gave interviews year after year, purporting to become world class doctors to serve the needy? If the parents of all kids, who are about to take the supposedly life-deciding board exams, pause for a second to ponder these questions, we can not only move away from rote learning towards nurturing a knowledge-driven society, but also perhaps ensure a happier, more holistic development of these young minds. Year after year, we focus on the number…

In the year 2017, data collected by Housing and Land Rights Network India (HLRN) reveals that government authorities, at both the central and state levels, demolished over 53,700 homes, thereby forcefully evicting, at a minimum, 260,000 (2.6 lakh) people across urban and rural India. The total number of persons affected has been calculated by multiplying the number of homes demolished by the average household size according to the Census (4.8). However, many demolished houses had more than one family, and most of the affected families have more than five persons. The real number of people displaced is therefore likely to…

Rarely perhaps does one see the police distributing chocolates and people bursting crackers upon the award of capital punishment by a judge. But such was the scene following the initial applause at the Chengalpet Court where the killer of seven-year-old Hasini was sentenced to death. While the judiciary and the police congratulate each other for delivering justice to the girl within a year of the brutal rape and murder that shocked Chennai, there are at least 328 such Hasinis in the Chengalpet Court alone, waiting for their turns to be heard. Dozens of more such miserable victims await justice in…

In Part 1 of this series, Citizen Matters had talked about carpooling startups in various cities and how people are availing these facilities. Despite the emergence of a number of players in the field, however, there are various challenges that these companies are grappling with. The biggest challenge carpooling entrepreneurs face is that the concept itself is not yet so popular in India. Concerns about privacy and security are common, so is the general feeling of discomfort in travelling in a stranger’s car. Hence a large part of these entrepreneur’s efforts are invested in popularising the concept and getting the support of…