GENRE: Voices

Shortlisted for the National Smart Cities Mission in 2017, Dehradun, capital of Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, inaugurated its most ambitious smart city project on December 25th, 2019. The Doon Integrated Control & Command Centre (DICCC), built at a cost of Rs. 294.41 crore, will be the nerve centre coordinating all the smart city projects and work towards unification and ease of delivery of civic and urban services. Dr Ashish Kumar Srivastava (IAS), Chief Executive Officer of the smart city mission in the city, is piloting the different smart city projects that include schemes like Smart Water ATMs (Rs 1.98 cr),…

This article is part of a special series: Safety of women in Indian cities The Sexual Harassment (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 was passed by Parliament to address gender specific discrimination in the workplace. The law codified the  Supreme Court’s guidelines in the Vishaka v. Union of India case, but has been marred by implementation and compliance challenges. Sexual harassment of women continues in the workplace, remains under-reported and when reported, is not immune from failed dispute resolution processes managed by the employers.. The reasons for the law struggling to deliver redressal to its intended beneficiaries are many.  But what…

For the past year, as part of my Peak Urban research, I have been researching the emergence of digital money and Uber-like online transport booking services in the auto-rickshaw industry in Bengaluru. I have witnessed huge gaps in provision to services, particularly for these low-income self-employed drivers who are marginalised from regulated banking institutions and are forced to seek alternative financial arrangements at exorbitant costs. They provide important transportation services for the public, that are designed to supplement the bus and Metro systems. Yet these drivers are not financially supported in terms of infrastructure investment, salaries, health insurance or retirement pensions.…

This article is part of a special series: Safety of women in Indian cities Every time a gruesome rape incident shakes the foundations of our belief in humanity, a few standard arguments make an appearance. Maybe I am being cynical, but my take is that the comments that follow a headline-grabbing rape seem like the script of a 70’s Hindi movie - standard, repetitive, predictable and, at the risk of sounding extremely insensitive, almost entertaining. “Make every rape punishable by capital punishment.” “We cannot ask the state to commit murder. It is barbaric and a violation of human rights.” “Justice…

Bengaluru’s draft Comprehensive Mobility Plan 2019, published by the BMRCL and DULT, has come under attack for several reasons, primary among which is its reliance on faulty and outdated data. The document is problematic from several perspectives - legal, technical, financial, and also in terms of sustainability. 1) Any successful travel demand model (TDM) must understand the people’s daily travel pattern (origin-destination), and their preferred mode of travel. Past TDM projects have identified the TAZs (Transportation Analysis Zones) without considering the economic strata of the public. In other words, they mix up different sections of the society which have distinct…

Chennai found itself in the grip of an acute water crisis last summer. The city saw a deficit monsoon the previous year and the reservoirs had all but run dry. Thus began a period of acute hardship for Chennaiites that lasted months. Long queues for tanker lorries across neighbourhoods became a common sight. Families survived on a mere three pots of water a day and women bore the brunt of the crisis, having to forego time at work or school to gather water. The crisis was however not without warning. Signs of scarcity had been looming for a while, but little…

This article is part of a special series: Safety of women in Indian cities “I walked on the side where the shops were, because they were well lit and there were people around” “I stood near the gate while waiting for my ride, just a bit inside, even though I did not belong to that college” “I never walk next to that tall compound wall” “I am always in a big group when I visit that park.  Too many bushes that make me feel as though someone is hiding there!” These are familiar statements, familiar sentiments that will resonate with every…

This article is part of a special series: Safety of women in Indian cities It has taken seven years and numerous rounds of review in different courts to get justice and closure in a case that shook the country with its brutality and almost became a metaphor for the spiralling sexual violence that women in India have faced in recent years. Why has the system failed us despite both POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) and POSH laws in place? Is it only the tardy justice system or a total systemic failure? As per National Crime Records Bureau, as…

It was exactly a year ago that the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) was launched with much fanfare. The media had at that time hailed it, claiming that it was the solution to all the ills that city’s public transport systems faced – each of them striking out in different directions and with no connection to each other. What was then forgotten was that even then the concept was seven years old. It had been approved by the Legislature in 2011 but for reasons best known to the Government, the required notifications were never issued. The change in political…

This article is part of a special series: Safety of women in Indian cities In any criminal act in which a woman is the target, the police is almost always in the best position to offer help, safety and reassurance to the aggrieved, besides investigating the crime and bringing the assailant to book. Clearly, this calls for a certain level of competence and professionalism, and a degree of empathy, patience and sensitivity towards women. Such qualities on the part of law-enforcers would be the criminal justice system’s most significant contribution towards empowering women and upholding their equal status.  Sadly however,…