GENRE: Voices

The city of Chennai that was Madras has been in an unprecedented state of lockdown since the third week of March. It is of course not alone in this, for the rest of the country, and indeed much of the world is pretty much in the same situation. With the numbers in the city spiking of late, the Government has toed the line when it comes to the Central Government’s directive that the lockdown be extended by two more weeks – to May 17th. This is to the good, at least as far as keeping a check on the spread…

Elected representatives have long been clamouring that the existing Karnataka Municipal Corporations (KMC) Act of 1976 is unsuited for a huge metropolis like Bengaluru. Hence the state government has drafted an exclusive BBMP Bill. The Bill was placed before the Legislative Assembly  on March 24, without any pre-legislative disclosure in public domain which violated Section 4(1)(c) and (d) of the Right to Information Act. As per the Opposition's demand, the Bill was then sent to a Joint Select Committee that comprises members from various parties. Hopefully, the Committee will conduct consultations. Read the full text of the BBMP Bill hereDownload…

In this series, individuals, citizen groups and RWAs explain how they have dealt with the COVID-19 crisis in a constructive manner. In the sixth part of the series, a resident of Vasanth Nagar describes the measures his RWA took. It was two days into the nationwide lockdown when Muniratna, a milkman, mentioned to one of our core team members, “Sir, what about daily wagers in the area? They can’t go anywhere, how will they survive?” Muniratna’s question got this VRWA core team member thinking. He and his family decided to initiate their own small pilot effort to test the waters…

RJ Usha from Radio Active 90.4 MHz speaks to Mohammed Imran, a worker from the Dry Waste Collection Centre (DWCC) at Ward No 123, on problems related to waste collection and segregation during lockdown. It's been over a month since the lockdown began, but Imran says that door-to-door waste collection has been going on as usual. Several workers at Imran's DWCC have been absent from work as they live in Bapuji Nagar ward which has been completely sealed off. Hence the collected waste is not being segregated on time. This, along with the difficulty in transporting waste from the DWCC,…

As the second most populous country in the world, and among the most densely populated, India continues to be at high risk of spread of the extremely contagious novel coronavirus disease, with millions vulnerable. Hence, the Indian government announced a stringent lockdown from March 25 until May 3, on all activity except delivery of essential services. Even as the lockdown has been extended to May 17, the government has now initiated phased lifting of restrictions in various locations based on the severity of the spread. As of May 3, Tamil Nadu had more than 3000 cases with Chennai being one…

RJ Asha from Radio Active 90.4 MHz talks to Jayalakshmi, a cab driver from Go Pink, Bengaluru’s women-only cab service, about the hardships drivers face during lockdown. Jayalakshmi ferries passengers to and from the Kempegowda International Airport through Go Pink, Bengaluru’s women-only cab service. The sudden implementation of the nationwide lockdown had taken her by surprise. Cab drivers across the city were unprepared for this and are now finding themselves in deep financial trouble, she says. Employees of the IT/BT sector have the privilege of working from home and getting paid, but workers like Jayalakshmi are left in the lurch.…

People with disabilities face additional challenges during COVID-19 lockdown. RJ  Manjula from Radio Active 90.4MHz talks to Srinivas Murthy, a first division clerk in the Forest Department who has vision disability, to bring these issues to light. Srinivas Murthy says that the sense of touch plays an important role in the lives of people with vision disability - be it for moving around or doing daily chores. Now, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, they need to be extra wary of the people they approach for help since the latter might be carriers of the virus. While people with disability who…

RJ Padmapriya from Radio Active 90.4 MHz discusses child abuse and mental health during the lockdown with Ashwini N V from the Muktha Foundation, an organisation committed to ‘prevent abuse and promote mental health’. During lockdown, everyone is primarily focusing on social and economic problems, but it’s important to bring issues related to mental health and abuse to the forefront, says Ashwini. Poor mental health of parents, unavailability of alcohol during lockdown, poor economic conditions, unemployment and frustration over not being able to step out are some of the reasons for the spike in child abuse during the lockdown. Parents tend…

RJ Usha from Radio Active 90.4 MHz talks to Azima, a resident of Banashankari, on the effects of water shortage during COVID-19 lockdown. Azima says shortage of drinking water is a key concern in her locality within Banashankari ward. Drinking water is available only once in about three days, and when water is released from the public tap, people crowd to collect it. This sometimes ends even in fights. Residents of this area do not have any other source of drinking water as they have to travel around a kilometre just to buy a Bisleri bottle.  Azima recounts that she…

[In Part 1 of this analysis, I discussed budget figures for 2020-21, and how resource mobilisation of the BBMP can be bettered. This concluding part is on suggestions to improve the finances of the civic body and how that can translate to efficiency.] A major source that the BBMP should tap for revenue -- after property taxes and leasing advertisement hoardings -- is to monetise its real estate through lease and rentals. Revenue from lease and rentals BBMP reportedly owns more than 20,000 properties across the city and most of them in prime locations. The rentals fixed are abominably low…