GENRE: Voices

It is said that doing the same experiment again and again under the same conditions and expecting a different result each time is schizophrenic. Bringing another legislation, the BBMP Bill, to improve the same dysfunctional BBMP is such an example. Over the past week, the Joint Legislative Committee (JLC) appointed by the state government has been deliberating on the BBMP Bill, a separate Bill for the administration of Bengaluru. This Bill is to replace the KMC (Karnataka Municipal Corporations) Act which is currently the basis for the administration of Bengaluru (and other municipalities in the state). BBMP Bill proposes increasing…

COVID-19 is far more than a health crisis; it has affected our economy and livelihoods, and has challenged our society overall. We have been applauding those in the healthcare sector, but few think of workers who’ve been risking their lives to maintain sanitation at the frontlines -- cleaning our streets, ensuring that we don’t catch the virus -- all with sub-optimal working conditions and lack of health cover.  To address this issue, Antar, a group of college students from Bengaluru and other cities, came together to provide ration and relief kits to pourakarmikas and their families. We have covered over…

In early July, I came across the news of a COVID-positive woman who was in urgent need of hospitalisation. She was turned down by 16 hospitals because no beds were available. However the government, on its website, claimed they had sufficient beds. Santosh Doddaiah, 25, is the founder of Covidbeds.org. He and his team regularly update the website with accurate data on available hospital beds for COVID patients. Pic Credit: Santosh Doddaiah To understand the reality, I did some research, and then started calling hospitals listed on the website - around 140 of them. Shekar hospital, Bull Temple road, had…

The first announcement of a nationwide lockdown in March brought in its wake anxiety, panic, confusion. Shutting down of offices and factories, public transport, day-care and other services hit the economy badly. Companies introduced ‘work from home’ options, cities struggled to provide basic services and amenities while maintaining safety regulations, public transport came to a stop, and the unpreparedness of our health care facilities to tackle the pandemic stood out stark and clear. In all this, the one question that has dominated mindspace is: How long can we lock down the nation? We need to move-on but safely. The world…

Jagruti Devi is a waste picker and lives in the slums of Rangpuri Pahadi in Delhi. Her husband collects waste in the mornings and sells vegetables on a pushcart in the evenings, while Jagruti Devi segregates waste at home. Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the lockdown was put in place, her husband hasn’t been able to go out to collect waste or to sell vegetables. “We haven’t been able to work since March. We have no savings left. If we can’t go back to work, I don’t know how we are supposed to survive,” Jagruti says. The lack of…

On August 19, 2020, Axis Bank, one of India’s leading private sector banks, announced that they are exploring a ‘Gig-a-Opportunities’ mandate: the company has 85,000 full time employees but over the next three years, 15% of their incremental hiring will be based on alternative models of working, said the Bank. This may be new for India but approximately 150 million workers in North America and Western Europe have left the relatively comfortable existence in a corporation to a life as independent contractors. It is possible that some of them did not have a choice, but all of them seem to be…

I had been noticing a man, about 40 years of age and evidently suffering mental health issues, around my neighbourhood on Venkatraman Street in Perambur over the past few months. In May 2020 when the Covid-19 cases started spiking I approached the local administration to seek help in securing a shelter for him. The initial response from the officials in the enforcement agencies and local administration was that it would be impossible to accommodate any person with a mental illness at the mental hospital or any home for the mentally challenged during the pandemic. They asked me to wait until…

[This article is part of the Bengaluru Moving series, in which citizens share their vision for BMTC post COVID. In this article, two researchers share their findings on easing bus commute for older adults. The series is published in collaboration with Radio Active’s #BengaluruMoving campaign.] For many older adults in Bengaluru, the bus is not just a transport mode. Their nostalgia surrounding the bus is immense. Older adults share memories of using the erstwhile Bangalore Transport Service (BTS) bus to go to work, to visit the lush green Cubbon park on weekends; going to Majestic to catch a bus to…

The ongoing pandemic marks a period of immense uncertainty worldwide. This has seen states deploying all means in their playbooks to ensure that people follow the rules and norms that would prevent spread. However, one issue, which for months was hotly debated but is now more or less unanimously agreed upon is the usage of face masks.  Despite the many studies and guidelines recommending usage of face masks or coverings, their usage is far from universal. And, where it is used, we have seen them dangling in various ways over the face,  without covering the nose and mouth in the…

“If nothing ever changed, there’d be no butterflies.” - Unknown Everyone learns about the life cycle of the butterfly right in primary school. Incredible isn’t it? – how it metamorphoses from a crawly caterpillar into a beautiful fluttery creature. With a short life cycle of about 30 days, it responds quickly to climatic and habitat changes, and therefore the presence of butterflies is increasingly being used as an environmental indicator. Butterflies are useful pollinators, and there are several plants that rely on them to propagate. There are about 20,000 species of butterflies in the world, and 1,400 of these are…