GENRE: In Focus

With the outbreak of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdowns, schools in Chennai run by the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) saw record high enrolment of new students. Across the 281 schools run by the civic body in the city, the total number of students increased from 90,394 in 2020-21 to 1,13,793 in 2021-2022, a 10-year high in enrolment. Many of these students moved from private schools to GCC-run schools in the middle of the pandemic. Loss of jobs for parents during the lockdown, the government declaring 'all pass' for all class students, and private schools demanding the same fee even for…

Parithi ElamSurithi is the son of six-time MLA of Egmore Parithi Elamvazhuthi. While his late father fell out with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) after an association spanning three decades, Parithi ElamSurithi's loyalties continued to rest with the party. He has been active as part of the DMK Youth Wing since 2009, holding various posts prior to his election as Councillor of Ward 99. Despite being a first-time Councillor, he says his experience on the field in the past decade has held him in good stead. "Members of my party, right from the Chief Minister, are my inspiration for the…

Mumbai’s perennial struggle with routine waterlogging and catastrophic floods is the result of several limitations in the city’s storm water drainage system. This includes its reliance on its riverine ecosystems of which the Mithi River is a key component. The Mithi is an urban river whose course has been trained and altered over the years, for almost its entire 17 km stretch. Channelizing the Mithi river for effective flood-risk mitigation has altered its capacity in several places, the impact of which is borne by those who live and work on the riverfront. Satellite images tracing the altered course of the…

“When we look at undergraduate admission exams across the world, from Gaokao (the National College Entrance Exam in China) to SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test), we see fierce competitive tests with high-end arrangements to avoid malpractice and cheating,” said Priyanshu Kumar Jha, a student at Kendriya Vidyalaya, Jamnagar who has taken the JEE mains and the CUET exam for under graduate college admission. “But only in India do we see such important exams being taken so casually”. The Common University Entrance Tests -Under Graduate (CUET-UG) exam centres allocated to students kept changing till the very last minute, and there were computer…

It is a truth universally acknowledged that public transit in Chennai is fragmented, poor in service quality, and dying a slow death in the last two decades. Certainly, the patronage numbers of the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) and other modes of public transport would support this with modal share dropping over the last few decades, concomitant with an increase in the modal share of private vehicles.  The experiential knowledge of service quality is that service frequency, in particular of the MTC buses is poor and unpredictable; buses and trains are often crowded, and signage and information on fares and routes…

Stepping into the 76th year of Independence, India now has 75 wetlands that have got the coveted Ramsar site tag. After a gap of 20 years, Tamil Nadu has got the Ramsar tag for 13 wetlands across the State in 2022. This makes Tamil Nadu the State with the highest number of Ramsar sites in India.  Pallikaranai marshland in Chennai has become the first wetland in the city to get the Ramsar tag. What is a Ramsar site? A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, also known as "The Convention…

A collective of people's movements and citizens have been working to strengthen local governance in Tamil Nadu. Voice of People, a non-partisan, voluntary organisation based in Chennai, is part of the collective looking to unlock participatory democracy in local governance through functional Area Sabhas and Ward Committees. The above demand can become a reality in Tamil Nadu through the implementation of the Tamil Nadu Municipal (Amendments) Act 2010 (ACT No. 35). As a remarkable step forward in the way of urban local governance in Tamil Nadu, the State Government notified the Rules of the said Act on June 24 2022,…

On July 1st 2022, Mumbai introduced a brand new plastic ban along with the rest of the country. 21 selected single-use plastic (SUP) items were outlawed for their low utility and high littering potential. These include disposable cutlery, plastic sticks for candies, ice cream and balloons, plastic flags, thermocol for decoration and carry bags under 75 microns thick. Come January 2023, the minimum thickness required for plastic bags will increase to 120 microns.  But Mumbai has been under a far more extensive plastic ban since June 2018. Most of the products on the newly banned list have not been allowed for manufacture, transport, storage…

In 2017, the Gambhir Committee's National Urban Livelihood Mission Shelter Inspection Report submitted to the Supreme Court observed that homeless shelters in the country were in a dismal condition. (The committee was comprised of three members and headed by Justice (retd) Kailash Gambhir.) Many states did not comply with the guidelines of the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM).  Five years later, the homeless are even worse off due to the pandemic, loss of livelihoods and unusual weather events triggered by climate change. The NULM is now aiming to provide, in a phased manner, permanent shelters to the urban homeless under…

The pandemic wrecked the livelihoods of many people in Chennai. The state government set up the Dr C Rangarajan Committee to provide medium-term policy suggestions to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19. One of the suggestions of the committee was the creation of a daily wage programme for the urban poor. Taking this into consideration, the Tamil Nadu government rolled out an Urban Employment Scheme (TNUES) in Chennai and other municipal corporations. The scheme mirrors the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and is designed to provide guaranteed employment for 100 days in a year. "The scheme has…