GENRE: Voices

India is in the midst of an acute unemployment crisis. Unemployment rate is at a 45-year high of 6.1 percent in 2017-18 as per the leaked Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) report of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO). According to the NSSO data, unemployment rate in urban areas is 7.8 percent with open unemployment of about 20 percent among the educated youth. In addition, majority in urban India work in the informal sector and are thus exposed to a host of risks and precarities. This, along with continued ecological degradation and crumbling urban infrastructure needs urgent attention. To address…

Congress President, Rahul Gandhi tweeted on Monday that he would make mayoral elections direct, since good leaders are needed to build smart cities. The Congress party has been sharing its key features on social media. The tweet seems like another promise in the direction of smooth urban governance. Real smart cities are built by good leaders. To improve quality of life in our cities we will move to directly elected Mayors with 5 yr terms & elected councils. Administration will be run by multidisciplinary teams of specialists & experts accountable to the Mayor & council. — Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April…

Gospel of Matthew 12:25, KJV:25 And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto him, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. The polling booth where you cast your vote, corresponds to a specific geographic area called a ‘part’. Each parliamentary and assembly constituency is divided into several parts, and the structure of a part is the same for both. A part should be formed in a way that the polling booth is within a walkable distance of two kilometres for all voters. For example, a booth in…

காட்சி 1: நாடாளுமன்றத் தேர்தல் பிரச்சாரத்தில் "ரோடு சரியில்ல ;குடிதண்ணீருக்கு வழியில்ல ;சாக்கடை அடைச்சிருக்கு ;போக்குவரத்து நெரிசல்;பள்ளிக்கூடம் சரியில்ல;மருத்துவமனை ஒழுங்கில்லை; குப்பைத்தொட்டி பிரச்னை, குப்பைமேடு பிரச்னை…”   நாடாளுமன்றத் தேர்தல் களத்தில்  இருக்கும் எல்லா வேட்பாளர்களை நோக்கியும் மக்கள் வீசும் பிரச்னைப் பட்டியல் இது. காட்சி 2:கல்லூரியில் ஜனநாயக விழிப்புணர்வு கருத்தரங்க நிகழ்ச்சி ஒன்றில் மாணவர்களை நோக்கிக் கேட்கிறேன் “நாடாளுமன்றத் தேர்தல் வருதே,இதுவரை உங்கள் பகுதியின் நாடாளுமன்ற உறுப்பினரின்(எம்.பி) செயல்பாடு எப்படி இருந்தது,இனிவரப்போகும் எம்.பி என்னென்ன செய்ய வேண்டும்?” "சார், கடுப்பா வருது. எம்.பி. எங்க ஏரியாப்பக்கமே வர்ல. வீட்ல இருந்து காலேஜ் போய்ட்டு வர்றதுக்கு பஸ் ரொம்பக் கம்மியா இருக்கு. கல்லூரி நேரத்திற்கு கூடுதல் பேருந்துகள் விடுங்கனு 4 வருஷமா கேட்கறோம். ஒன்னும் நடக்கல. இப்ப இருக்கற எம்.பி. வேஸ்ட். எங்க ஏரியாப் பிரச்னைய யார் தீர்த்துவைக்கப் போறாங்களோ அவங்களுக்குத்தான் இந்தமுறை ஓட்டுப்போடப் போகிறேன்” என்பது போன்ற பதில்கள் பல…

The call for a ‘Swachh Bharat’ irritates me, because my city is far from being clean. Bengaluru, my charming garden city, is being destroyed every day. Of course, the burgeoning population could be the primary cause, but what is happening to the civic sense of the citizens? What role do the civic authorities play? Most main roads are dug up for construction of flyovers, metro rail or some road widening project. Don’t even ask about the roads within residential areas. Beautiful bungalows are mindlessly demolished to build apartments with a minimum of four storeys (with one more illegal storey, of…

Exactly a year back, in March 2018, Beautiful Bengaluru had launched the “Minimum Water Challenge,” which it plans to continue this year. Over the last one year, we have seen many challenges being rolled out across the world, most of which are dares of no significant consequence. But this is one challenge that can have a definite impact on a very real problem the world is facing – water scarcity. What this challenge pushes you to do is to use only as much water as is needed for a particular task, not as much as is abundantly available. That requires…

Move over. I hear the flowers whispering to the colours with their mild scent wafting through the air, symbolizing a rather straitlaced demeanour - Holier than thou. After all our festivals are replete with symbolism and rituals. Holi, the festival of colours, is no exception, as it signifies greyish winter coming to an end, heralding vividly colourful spring with a burst of blooms of different hues. Typically Holi, as we know, is celebrated with dry or wet synthetic colours aided by water balloons and Pichkaris. But did you know traditionally the colours were made from flowers? ''Palash" or Flame of…

Political blame games and balms have kept the pot boiling for the past five years. With parties crossing boundaries, not a dull moment, though dignity was often in want. Now we have the real elections to the Lok Sabha. Should we be voting? A moot question. Don’t even ask. Speak through your ballot. If you have not registered as a voter yet, do so immediately. The following are the last dates for voter registration in some of the key cities: Delhi - April 13, 2019 Mumbai - March 29, 2019 Kolkata - April 19, 2019 Trivandrum - March 24, 2019…

The last few weeks, Bengaluru's netizens have been having intense discussion about the proposed Elevated Corridors (EC). Having gone through all the available material, I have decided to join the protest group. I took the decision based on the following reasons: The organisers have clearly enunciated the demand: to cancel the tender, and then go for public consultation. The demand does NOT reject the EC, as some people are claiming. The organisers have given first-cut reasons to justify this demand. This is perfectly legal, and in good democratic spirit. I cannot see any ulterior motive (so far). The mega-buck project has…

The Government of Karnataka proposes a long network of elevated traffic corridors, totalling close to 90 kilometres in length, to alleviate congestion in Bengaluru, and recently floated a tender for the first phase of the project. This tender, and subsequent ones to follow, are on the basis of a detailed feasibility report commissioned by Karnataka Road Development Corporation and prepared by a trio of private consultants engaged for the purpose. The report only mentions the construction cost of the project, which is over Rs. 19,000 crores. There have been press reports that claim once land acquisition and other costs are…