GENRE: Voices

Life in resettlement colonies in Chennai comes with myriad issues. Our wait for proper infrastructure, basic services, benefits and entitlements has been long and the fight has been hard. My life used to revolve around my house in the Perumbakkam resettlement area. Even though I taught children from Classes 1 to 5 to read and write Tamil in our Reading Club, I was still confined to my household and managing its affairs. But as Community Champion, now my life revolves around the entire resettlement area, where I work to make the lives of people here better. An experiential learning programme,…

A recent study found Chennai to be the top city for women in India. Chennai ranked first among metro cities with a million-plus population. The parameters that the ranking was based on included safety and ease of living for women. At the same time, crimes against women in Tamil Nadu have seen an increase by 40% in 2022 according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau. So, how easy is it to navigate life in Chennai as a woman? Is the city as safe and convenient as perception seems to suggest? What does freedom mean for the women of…

The Greater Chennai Corporation’s (GCC) budget is expected to be tabled in the council meeting on March 27. The state of the finances of the civic body requires close scrutiny as the quality of daily life of Chennaiites is linked to how well the civic body can carry out its functions. Chennaiites part of active Residents' Welfare Associations and Civil Society Organisations share their expectations on what must feature in the city’s budget. On roads and stormwater drains in Chennai While residents are aware of the importance of stormwater drains for flood mitigation, many raise grievances about the impact of…

A common sight across Chennai is garbage bins overflowing with unsegregated waste, with some of it pooling on the ground around the bins. The stench emanating from the bins is bound to make anyone gag. Not only are the sight and smell unpleasant, but they are also a recipe for health and environmental hazards. With this in mind, the residents of Valmiki Nagar in Thiruvanmiyur have been able to do away with large garbage bins that had been placed on the street.   The residents managed this feat with meticulous source segregation, constant dialogue with the community and ensuring that the…

Translated by Sandhya Raju பிளாஸ்டிக் பைகள், உபயோகப்பட்ட டயப்பர்கள், வீணாக்கப்பட்ட உணவுகள், சில சமயம் உபயோகப்பட்ட மருத்துவ ஊசிகள். இது போன்ற பொருட்களை தினந்தோறும் தன் பணியின் போது பிரிக்கிறார் தூய்மை பணியாளர் ரமேஷ்*. “கைகள் வெயர்த்து போகும் என்பதால் எப்பொழுதும் நாங்கள் கையுறையை உபயோகிப்பதில்லை,” என்கிறார் ரமேஷ்.  இது போன்ற கடுமையான சூழலில் சொற்ப சம்பளத்திற்கு தான் நகரத்தில் தூய்மை பணியாளர்கள் வேலை செய்கிறார்கள். பெரும் சவாலாக உள்ள போக்குவரத்து பெரும்பாலான தூய்மை பணியாளர்கள் தங்கள் இருப்பிடத்திலிருந்து வெகு தூரம் பணிக்கு செல்ல வேண்டியுள்ளது.    “காலையில் 3 மணிக்கு எழுந்து, சமைத்து, வீட்டை சுத்தம் செய்து, இரண்டு பேருந்து மாறி பணியிடத்திற்கு செல்ல வேண்டும். காலை 6-6.30 மணிக்குள் பயோமெட்ரிக்கில் வருகையை பதிவு செய்ய வேண்டும். ஐந்து நிமிடம் தாமதானாலும், எங்கள் மேற்பார்வையாளர் வீட்டிற்கு திருப்பி அனுப்பி விடுவார் அல்லது அந்த நாள் சம்பளத்தை பிடித்தம் செய்து…

Chennai saw the flood of the century in 2015. Four years on, in 2019, the city came to a standstill as the main reservoirs ran dry and Chennai hit 'Day Zero'. The city's fraught relationship with water has affected the lives of millions with no permanent solution in sight. In an interview with Citizen Matters Chennai, Dr S Janakarajan, the President of the South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies (SaciWATERs), Hyderabad and former Professor and Director at Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), unpacks the issues with water management in Chennai that has led to both flooding and…

On February 7, 2023, 30 fishermen from Uran Koliwada were arrested for opposing work on the Uran bypass bridge. The grounds for the FIR against them was that the accused were causing "danger to the nation," as the project is of "national importance." While they were given bail, the arrests are emblematic of fisherfolk's fight to oppose the rampant and widespread destruction of their fishing areas by development far and wide. Fishermen from Uran Koliwada have been protesting against various projects carried out by Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (CIDCO), Navi Mumbai Special…

The webinar was titled “The mysterious process of budget allocations”. The panellists were all people who had for many years studied budgets, the process and its many shortcomings. They could not solve this particular mystery. But all gave very practical steps to give the budget more meaning and substance and make it less mysterious. To me, at the end of the discussion, one thing stood out. The figures all budgets bandy about, in this case especially the thousands of crores supposedly allocated to Bengaluru, mean absolutely nothing. Their yearly presentation is a meaningless ritual that the law demands. My point…

Around 20 years ago, Kannan*, was a 20-year-old youngster taking up odd jobs to support his family in Chennai's Tambaram. He had dropped out of school. It was around this time that he came to know of an ongoing recruitment drive for a government job. The essential qualification for this job was to have a good lung capacity to be able to hold one's breath underwater. When Kannan showed up for the test, he found that the challenge was not in being able to hold his breath but rather, it was the water he was dealing with. He had been…

A living will is a written document in which a person expresses their wishes regarding medical treatment in the event they become terminally ill or incapable of making decisions themselves. In a living will, an individual designates a proxy to make decisions on their behalf and instructs proxy as well as others about what he or she wants. The concept of a living will is based on the principle that every person has the right to determine the type of medical treatment they receive or discontinue when their condition requires it. Many others share the same view but the mere…