GENRE: Voices

On the new year’s eve the State government appointed senior IPS officer Praveen Sood as the Police Commissioner of Bengaluru. On the same night, incidents of 'mass molestation' were reported in the city, showing Bengaluru in a bad light. Now that the dust has settled, and the police chief is completing three months in his office, he says he is working with an agenda which he terms as “citizen empowerment.” In a detailed interview with the Citizen Matters, the Police Commissioner tells why it is important for city police to shift from citizen awareness to citizen empowerment - to make…

In our article on monetary compensation available to victims of road accidents, we had mentioned the Solatium Fund, constituted under the Solatium Scheme, under Section 163 (1) of the Motor Vehicles Act 1988, for the payment of compensation to victims of hit and run motor accidents. This came into force with effect from July 1989. Below is a round-up of its most salient features, and the details of the procedure for claiming compensation under it. How is the Fund administered? Contributions to the Fund are made by the General Insurance Corporation according to an agreed formula and the latter nominates one…

Hoskote. East Bengaluru. March 22, 2016. The case of 22-year-old Kishore Kumar, whose bike was hit by an unidentified vehicle and who was turned away by two private hospitals in the city, was reported by several local media. The first hospital reportedly refused treatment to the victim, as he was unaccompanied by family members or any persons known to him and had been taken to the hospital by a good samaritan. Cut to a year later. On March 17, 2017, The Indian Express reported the case of Sunil Patra who was critically injured when a truck rammed into his motorcycle…

There was a time when menstruating women were asked to ‘sit’ separately during ‘those’ days – they would not enter the kitchen or go to the market or fill water from the well or do any work. It was like being in the naughty corner for 3-4 days. It probably gave the over-burdened women a restful break every month. Times have changed and women cannot take (nor do they want to take) those kinds of breaks. All the leak-lock technologies, long-absorbing gels and ultra-thin-extra-large sizes in sanitary pads -- at the end of the day, they are still restrictive. Reusable menstrual…

Many may have missed this small snippet of news, but the Special Officer, Corporation Commissioner D Karthikeyan has already passed the Greater Chennai Corporation budget, reportedly on March 14. Details of the budget are however being withheld in the name of election code of conduct, in view of the imminent by-elections in RK Nagar. While one can understand that the announcement of welfare measures related to RK Nagar could violate the election code of conduct, it is difficult to see why the entire budget details have to be withheld. And one cannot hold back the feeling that an elected council…

Our first reaction when we see litter on the streets, dump yards along our highway or near our home, street animals eating the bits of rubbish along with the plastic covers:  Uuhgghh….!! Can anything at all be done to end this? Can’t the government do something to clean up? Can we stop rampant garbage burning? Only about 25% of the waste generated in Chennai is treated, the rest is merrily added to the waste dumps, creating pollution and in-turn affecting our health. Can we do something about this? Exploring these questions, some of us at Bhumi NGO decided to start by…

Come summer, newspapers across the country faithfully remind us of the dire state of the depleting water-tables in our cities, touching scarier levels each year. Living in our ivory towers as we do, water tankers shield us from reality. Some believe that the rains will naturally resolve matters. The stark reality is that mismanagement of water-resources, illegal bore-wells, rampant misuse of potable water for construction, disrupted storm-water drains/water channels – all ensure that groundwater recharge is severely impacted. With a spiralling demand-supply gap, the water problems of every Indian city are set to assume nightmarish proportions unless immediate action is…

On any normal weekday morning, if you take a peek into Google maps with Traffic on, and zoom into the East of Bengaluru, you can see some dark lines forming around Tin Factory. This gets input from two green lines – the Old Madras Road and the Outer Ring Road from Kalyan Nagar. The ORR from Kalyan Nagar used to be a mess, but these days things seem to be in some sort of control. This dark line extends all the way till the KR Puram Railway station, becoming green again as traffic rushes out from that point, like kids…

“Why should I switch to a menstrual cup now? I am already above 45 and I am approaching my menopause! I have very heavy periods. How will a cup hold it?” These are some of the arguments I hear when I am talking about “cupverting” my friends in the age-group 45-50. I grew up in Mumbai with probably the first generation of Carefree and Stayfree users. At that time, my mother who was in her forties was using cloth to save money for my pads. At that time, disposables were marketed as the convenient and healthy way. No one really…

You are a runner. The customary weekend long run is underway, when suddenly it dawns upon you at the 20th kilometre that you were supposed to get your periods today. Hmmmmmm. May be you are getting it right now, but you are sweating, your nose is running and the body is complaining, so you don’t know for sure if it is the monthly disaster that has commenced (so soon?) or whether these are the aches and pains of a long run. If you have never found yourself in the above scenario, you are likely to be a man. Even if…