GENRE: In Focus

While it is now widely acknowledged that vaccines hold the key to our fight against COVID-19, the vaccination drive in India's cities appear to have hit a major roadblock and the daily coverage is far below what would have been a desirable target. The vaccination drive in Chennai began along with the rest of the country on January 16th. First in line were the healthcare and frontline workers, the drive then gradually expanded to cover those over 60 years of age and then those above the age of 45. Finally, from May 1st, it was declared that all those above…

Indulekha (name changed) from ECR nearly had a nervous breakdown when her father’s oxygen saturation levels dipped to 78. COVID treatment for her 72-year-old father at a private hospital was something she could not consider. “They quoted a sum of Rs 2 lakh a day for ventilator support. How can a lower middle class family like ours ever afford it?” Indulekha questioned. Her only choice was to go for the government hospitals.  On May 4th, the family waited outside the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and Stanley Medical College hospital for hours, in vain. “Multiple calls to the 104 helpline…

Describing her lockdown experience in a basti (settlement) in Mumbai, 15-year-old Saniya’s rap song captures the isolation that has given the year 2020 the epithet of ‘The Year We Lost’. The suspension of daily rhythms, coupled with a warped sense of time and subsequent loneliness—despite being surrounded by millions of other people—is a feeling many resonate with, as cities around the world fell into a disquieting silence. Yet, even as India went into one of the strictest lockdowns in the world with barely four hours notice, this sensation was amplified for already vulnerable groups such as adolescent girls. As school gates were locked and public…

The Maharashtra government’s handling of the 2021 lockdown holds lessons for students of public policy about how a simple tweak in government attitude and policy could prevent so many tragedies and prove beneficial for so many. In April 2020, the sudden closure of rail services and public transport forced migrant workers in many states to flee on trucks, cycles, cement mixers and on foot for hundreds of kilometers back to their villages facing death, starvation and suffering.  Forced by the public outcry, the railways did start Shramik trains. But the 4621 Shramik trains that ferried 63 lakh passengers in 2020-21…

Well, that almost sounds like a page out of a fantasy novel, given the water scenario many of its localities have been facing in recent years. It's been barely two years that the city was making global headlines for having dried up completely in the wake of a monsoon failure and depleting groundwater reserves.  Was it this crisis that served as a wake up call for the Tamil Nadu government, pushing it to take steps to augment the city’s water supply and conserve water resources? How is summer 2021 going to be on the water front? What has changed in…

“Urban administration and urban planning in India is undergoing a major change,” says Rajneesh, Principal Secretary, Housing and Urban development. “Himachal Pradesh, a predominantly rural state, has to make this transition given that urbanisation is a fact of life and new ULBs (Urban Local bodies) must be strengthened”. This was the rationale given by the Himachal Pradesh government to form three new municipal corporations to administer Solan, Palampur and Mandi . While Solan is a fast growing town with several educational institutions of higher studies and a bustling business community, Palampur in Kangra district is a popular tea town and home to…

On a late Wednesday evening in mid-April, a queue of women forms in front of the water tap at Doraiswamy Reddy Street, Korattur. Leaving their domestic chores and cooking half done, these women have rushed with their pots and cans to source their bi-weekly water supply from the Chennai Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB). The anxiety on their faces is palpable. Not everyone will have filled pots to take back home at the end of the evening. A light brown coloured liquid with a rotten smell trickles down the road, as a woman opens the tap. She just lets…

“One of our neighbours suddenly saw notices, announcing the Pune Municipal Corporation’s proposal to widen six-metre roads to nine metres and inviting objections within a stipulated time frame, pasted randomly in the lanes of the Anand Park locality,” says Dr Dhananjay Rau, president of Anand Park Residents Association (APRA), a housing society in Aundh. “It took us completely by surprise. Thankfully, we still had time, so we submitted our objections to the PMC.” The six internal lanes of Anand Park are dead-ends and do not connect to the main road. So why widen the roads, the residents ask. Uncertain utility apart,…

“I am really frightened; it is not a wave, it is a tsunami this time,” said Dr Rajesh Gupta, additional director, Pulmonology and Critical Care, at Fortis Hospital, Noida, as he rushed towards the COVID ward which he heads.  A month back, Dr Gupta, a recovered COVID patient himself, had stopped wearing the PPE kit. Not because of any discomfort it caused, but because the numbers of COVID cases had fallen to an all-time low by the first week of February, with not a single COVID patient in his ward. Six weeks later, the hospital’s ICU is packed to capacity and he is…

On April 6th, a humid day, Zaitoon Begum, a 87-year-old resident of Kottivakkam went to the nearby polling station to cast her vote. Presently a Sholinganallur constituent, Zaitoon Begum has been voting for more than six decades now — she voted first at the then Madras Presidency.  Zaitoon Begum's polling experience was smooth — social distancing was maintained at the booth, masks and gloves were mandated for all voters. But she is still a little disappointed, having had to visit the polling booth at a time when COVID infections are rising across Chennai. “Given the circumstances, the ballot box should…