GENRE: In Focus

Consumers in Bengaluru would have noticed discrepancies in their electricity bills last year, considering the tariffs went through three revisions in 2022 alone. In April 2022, the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) revised the tariff for electricity consumers in the state by hiking the price by an additional 35 paisa for the fiscal year 2022-23. The report stated the hike in price was to recover a revenue deficit of Rs 2159.48 crore.  Following this, in June, the Commission accepted electricity supplying companies’ (escoms) proposal to recover the “money spent on increased fuel costs,” resulting in Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited…

Nazir Ahmed, a labourer, had bought a house in 1988 in the Achan area of Srinagar as land and home prices in the area were affordable for him then as compared to other areas of Srinagar. “When I shifted my belongings to the new house, I saw vehicles of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) disposing of garbage in an open area, just a few hundred meters away from my house,” recalls Nazir. Nazir did not think much of this at the time. But as time passed, the few truckloads of SMC laden with garbage from different areas of Srinagar and dumping…

The Minister for Municipal Administration and Water Supply in August 2021 pointed out that 53% of the total population of Tamil Nadu is currently residing in urban areas and that this figure is likely to become 60% in 2036. The demographic and vulnerability profile of the urban homeless in Chennai are heterogeneous in nature and they face several intersectional issues. Currently, the shelter for the urban homeless is seen as the only viable solution to address the multi-dimensional vulnerabilities faced by the people. However, there is an emerging need to develop a comprehensive intervention to ensure access to basic services…

Accessible public transport has been a long-pending demand from disability activists across the country.  Our repeated efforts have resulted in some progress but there’s still a long way to go for affordable public transport to be inclusive.  In the case of Chennai, the long struggle to ensure the procurement of low-floor, accessible buses has been an issue that has reflected the treatment of those with disabilities in the public sphere. Experience with inaccessible buses in Chennai My own experience attempting to use buses in Chennai as a person with disabilities has been harrowing.  I had a fall out of a…

Access to sanitation is a human right, according to the United Nations. But when we conducted a spot-check of some public toilets in Chennai, not all of them were accessible, safe and usable. While the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has made sure that the public toilets are free to use, many people do not yet have complete physical access to toilets or a safe and clean set-up to use with dignity. For instance, 128 families of around 400 people in Kannappar Thidal use the community toilet with four usable cubicles for women and six for men. Read more: Kannappar Thidal: Where residents continue their 20-year…

In a narrow gully in Thane’s Vartak Nagar, a small home-based unit of a contractor is also the assembly point for the area’s women to gather and take raw materials to make keychains. The contractor weighs and counts the keychain parts before wrapping them in a plastic bag. He notes the quantity in his diary and a small notebook that each woman carries with her. “Kal ka kitna bana (How many did you make yesterday),” the contractor asks each woman, who deposits the previous day’s keychains with him as he again records the quantity they have submitted. The women take…

When Cyclone Mandous and its wake dumped considerable rain in Chennai suburbs as well as the city, residents in gated communities and housing units experienced yet another year of misery. It was in stark contrast to the marketed images of gated communities where people happily drive in and out of luxury enclaves in flashy cars and spend time in butterfly gardens as children play in the warm sunshine. Residents had to put up with choked patchy inundated roads, the stench of stagnant floodwater and rotting refuse, and a proliferation of invasive giant African snails that comes after the rains. Chennai…

On December 2nd, a performance audit report by the CAG of India on Solid Waste Management by Urban Local Bodies in Odisha got tabled in the state assembly. This CAG audit covered the five year period (April 2015 to March 2020) and was conducted with the objective to assess whether the planning of waste management in ULBs were effective, efficient and economic. The period under review is of interest to all the researchers concerned with the compliance of Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, as Odisha state has been facing a legal battle with regard to compliance at National Green Tribunal,…

In 1958, Fathima Ahamath's father, the late A.K.A. Abdul Samad, who led the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) for 25 years, began his political career as the ward councillor of Harbour (erstwhile ward 60) of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC). "I am proud to carry my father's legacy," she says. "I have taken up this job with a commitment to make a change." Fathima entered the world of politics at the age of 25. Even though she had her inhibitions about her new career, her father and partner provided much-needed reassurance. "They wanted me to break the glass ceiling and…

With a timeline of at least 15 years, the Dharavi redevelopment project is not expected to bear fruit anytime soon. Neither the residents, the established businesses, nor the winning bidder, the Adani group, have any illusions of a quick transformation to the area that has evolved over a century; spanning over 250 hectares, 8.5 lakh residents and 20,000 businesses and industries. But change is very much on its way. The Maharashtra government aims to get this long-promised project started in 6 months. The race to kickstart the redevelopment has been on, however, ever since September last year, when the government…