GENRE: In Focus

Meerasa’s story is one of displacement. The son of a boat maker and a resident of Dhonirevu (Karimanal island), one of many villages around the Pulicat lake, Meerasa and his parents were evicted from their home in 1985 during ISRO’s Sriharikota expansion. Meerasa now lives in Jameelabad and has worked in conservation since he graduated from school. But with industrial expansion around Pulicat lake threatening the land and the mangrove forests that surround them, Meerasa fears that history might be repeating itself. About 50 km north of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, is Pulicat lake, the second largest brackish water ecosystem in…

On January 17th, students of the Purvi Dilli Nagar Nigam Prathmik Vidyalaya in East Delhi, received a voice message on WhatsApp, instead of the usual worksheet or online lessons. “Namaste Bachchon… aap kaise ho?” began Vibha Singh, principal of the school. She went on to tell them that the teachers were not able to send the worksheets because they have not been paid their salaries for many months. “Because the government has not paid us salaries for many months, we are on strike,” added Vibha. “You know, don’t you, that if there is no salary it is difficult to manage…

“It was a tough time and we were really stressed and worried,” recalled Adarsh, a student pursuing law in a Dehradun college. Adarsh was one of many students who had come to study in one of Dehradun’s many educational institutions who were caught totally unprepared by the sudden lockdown last March. “We really struggled to understand the government rules and make sense of it”. The challenge, for students like Adarsh and the public at large was two fold. One, the uncertainties arising from the lockdown and two, figuring out the many government advisories in order to plan their travel back…

Smart, enthusiastic and brave -- that’s how those who loved Pavithra (name changed) will always remember her. Pavithra had an army of friends. Always curious, she used to ask questions about everything under the sun. Bright, vivacious, energetic. Until a traumatic incident changed her life.  Four years ago, Pavithra was sexually assaulted by her neighbour -- a college-going student. The 13-year-old girl withdrew herself from the world. ‘Why did it happen to me?’ is the only question she asks her mother these days. “She used to be brave even as a child. The incident has shaken her so much that…

“We have been in the business of dry waste management for years but nobody gives us a salary or respects us,” says Nayan Mohammad, a local waste picker in Velachery. Time and again, local waste pickers have been denied recognition for the vital work they do. They lack any kind of safety net and continue to operate informally on the fringes of waste management and are not given an opportunity to step into the formal fold.  This time too, with the Indo-Spanish partnership ‘Urbaser-Sumeet’ bagging the waste management contract with Greater Chennai Corporation, waste pickers in many parts of the…

You walk up to the counter and pick up your serving of piping hot sambar rice and sit in a neat row of chairs under colourful umbrellas. You make a mental note to pick up some coffee from the small kiosk on the premises on your way out. After polishing off your meal, you pay Rs 5, a fraction of what it would cost you anywhere in the city, as you have just eaten at Amma canteen 2.0. This could well be the future of the ubiquitous, government-run, low-cost eateries as its management has been turned over to a trust…

“At some point of time, we may die of starvation and the sole reason will be this road link.” Muhammad Sultan, a fruit seller who plies his cart at the busy Lal Chowk in the heart of Srinagar city, could be excused for this dire prediction. But he is one of many whose livelihood has been seriously impacted by the closure of the 300-km Jammu-Srinagar road, the only road link that connects the valley to the rest of India and a lifeline for over 6.5 million people living in the Valley. “There was no supply of fresh fruit in the…

“Marina beach has been our home for almost 40 years. We have done different kinds of business here to support our families. Whether during the rains or the harsh Chennai summers, we continued our trade to feed our kids. If we are forced to leave this place, what shall we do?” says a distraught S Kalyani, as she slices fruits to be sold at her stall on Marina beach. At present, the beach accommodates more than 2430 carts used as vending stalls and even has 200 inactive spots. The majority among the vendors belong to the fishermen community, while some…

On December 29th, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia rolled out a scheme of supplying dry ration kits in lieu of the mid-day meals in east Delhi’s Mandawali area that falls in Sisodia’s assembly constituency of Patparganj. Each kit contained provisions for six months that included wheat, rice, pulses and oil. “During the lockdown, we tried to provide an allowance in place of the mid-day meals in the students’ bank accounts, but now we are starting distribution of dry-ration among students,” said Kejriwal. Though the scheme will continue till the schools reopen, Sisodia confessed missing mid-day…

Delhi has two groups of poor, who are not getting enough to feed their children. One are those who have a ration card. The other is the migrant worker, with no ration card, as they cannot furnish address proof. Kriti Rani and her two children, a son and daughter, fall in the first type. She has a ration card for her family of four. “But I am not getting anything from the last month against my ration card,” says Kriti. “Till then I used to get rations twice a month—totally 12 kgs of wheat and 8 kgs of rice, for…