GENRE: Solutions

Many Indian state governments have experimented with subsidised canteens over the last few years. The most recent addition to this has been the Karnataka government launch of ‘Indira Canteens’ in Bengaluru this month (August 2017). According to media reports, the canteens in most states have been very popular, a fact borne out by the long queues often seen outside these. Intended for the urban poor - mainly the destitute, elderly, unemployed, migrants and the working poor - these canteens usually serve food for Rs 10 or much less. The concept of subsidised food canteens became especially popular after the success…

BBMP’s outsourced garbage contract system failed continuously to deliver and rampant corruption and malpractices the order of the day. Yet the Council has again proposed that the tenders be called for again, supporting the comeback of contractors! As explained in Part 1, the stranglehold of the BBMP Council on the implementation of effective waste management, therefore, still continues, leading to a virtual paralysis in the SWM delivery and implementation. No new SWM proposals have been passed by the Council in the last five months and status quo is being maintained. This is a testimony to the lack of willpower to…

Karnataka Legislative Assembly elections are just a year away, and it’s time for residents in Bengaluru to register themselves in the electoral rolls. In Mahadevapura Legislative Assembly Constituency that is home to a large number of migrant population in the Information Technology and other sectors, it’s a huge challenge to get people registered in electoral rolls and make them vote in elections. Citizens in Whitefield and surrounding areas in Mahadevapura have come up with an initiative to fix this problem. Million Voter Rising, a campaign by Whitefield Rising, aims at enrolling at least one lakh voters to the electoral rolls…

Three communities in southeast Bengaluru - Rainbow Drive, Adarsh Palm Retreat and Renuka School adjacent to Kaikondarahalli Lake, have created individualised water management plans to solve problems like water shortage, reliance on borewells and flooding. Knowledge and understanding of their groundwater system has allowed these communities to make smarter decisions when it comes to withdrawing groundwater and making the conscious effort to recharge water back into the earth. Biome Environmental Trust, ACWADAM and Mapunity with funding from Wipro Ltd. spent three years researching the water that lies beneath the surface in a research project called Participatory Aquifer Mapping (PAQM). An…

Every Saturday morning Srinivasan, a retired revenue officer, and Ganesh, also a retired government employee, sit in a tiny room in one of the old buildings in a narrow lane of Bazaar Road in Saidapet. For the entire day, they sit there, receiving grievances and applications from the citizens who throng to the office from Chennai and surrounding areas. This is the office space of Satta Panchayat Iyakkam (SPI), where the SPI has been conducting their Saturday grievance redressal sessions over the last five years. These grievance meetings primarily focus on assisting people in availing government services and to help…

“How many Government Hospitals are there in Bengaluru? Could you please tell me few names?” I asked a female worker at St Johns Hospital, Bengaluru, who had a big smile on her face and looked approachable. “Umm, Victoria… Vanivilas… Jayadeva… there are a lot of them” she answered. Armed with what I could glean from Google and my limited knowledge of Kannada, I was on a quest: to locate health services for women in government hospitals in the city. We had attempted the same earlier in Delhi as part of a mapping project for Hidden Pockets, which locates services around…

It is a site that has inspired poets like Kuvempu and scores of other artists, a beautiful green cover in the heart of Mysuru city that provides recreation and relaxation for the hundreds of city residents who come here every day for their daily walk, run or merely to enjoy the peace and beauty. Such is Kukkurahalli Lake, a calm, naturally scenic place rich in biodiversity, home to more than 150 species of birds, 85 species of butterflies, 20 species of reptiles, 14 species of mammals, 37 species of spiders and many more documented in the lake, leading it to…

It’s not every day that you hear of a municipal waste dumping ground that is a tourist attraction. But in Vengurla taluka, a half-hour drive from India’s tourist hub of Goa, it isn’t just the pristine beaches that are drawing people. In 2017 so far, the municipal waste dumping ground, where every piece of waste is recycled, has received 7,000 visitors. They’re travelling to see how the small municipality is recycling 7 tonnes of waste generated each day and transforming their community. It is earning a hefty income, which is being ploughed back into municipal activities. In 2015, under the watchful eye…

Waste management is a hot topic in Bengaluru these days. With so many ways to compost, reuse and recycle, the possibilities are endless. But where do you start? You have a bucket of kitchen waste and an area perfect for a small garden just waiting to be utilised. How do you get from discarded eggshells and browning banana peels to nutrient-packed soil and eventually a thriving vegetable garden? Basavanagudi in Bengaluru hosted a Composting Santhe (fair) on June 25, Sunday, to answer questions on composting and promote home gardening. The five-hour event saw a crowd of all ages interested in…

On Sunday, June 18th, Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) and Environmental Foundation of India (EFI) in association with The Hindu and Casa Grande organized the 8th edition of the Chennai Coastal Cleanup (CCC), a South India-wide awareness drive on our growing garbage footprint and the impact on the environment. 5000 volunteers and 130 organizations, schools, NGOs in 10 large cities removed 41 tonnes of garbage from lakes, rivers and beaches. In Chennai, 4600 volunteers participated in removing 32 tonnes of garbage from 20 km of Chennai's shoreline between Lighthouse and Uthandi. Volunteers segregated garbage in 69% recyclables (glass, plastics, etc) taken…