HUMAN RIGHTS

“The authorities told us to let them begin the construction work, and if we resist, they will do it by force,” says Dinesh Habale, a social worker and a tribal resident of Habal Pada, a village of over 65 families, near Film City in Aarey. The recent news of the approval for tunnel construction, with a final bid of Rs 6,301 crore for the Goregaon Mulund Link Road (GMLR) project, has left the tribal villagers of Habal Pada deeply uneasy. They dread the prospect of their ancestral homes being sacrificed for the construction of the upcoming tunnel project. As different…

"In our current challenging situation, we're taking life one day at a time," shares Kusum Bhagat, an elderly tribal woman residing in Devichapada, a village near Film City in Aarey. Kusum, currently recovering from blood cancer, finds herself in an ongoing battle to protect her family's ancestral farmland from being turned into a film set. She talks about the struggles of her family with tears in her eyes, while standing on guard next to the farmland, worrying if people from Film City will start the construction work. "We take turns standing guard, and I've been on duty since this afternoon.…

On October 1st 2023, we commemorated the Day of the Older Persons. The United Nations established this observance in 1990 to highlight the important role that older people play in their families, communities, and society at large. Each year, the International Day of Older Persons (IDOP) has a specific theme to focus on. This year's theme revolved around “Fulfilling the Promises of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for Older Persons: Across Generations.” Objectives of United Nations International Day of Older Persons (UNIDOP) 2023 Increasing the protection of the human rights of current and future generations of senior citizens worldwide…

More than four days after his younger brother died in a flooded sewer in Govandi in suburban Mumbai, 27-year-old Rahul Kumar was still in a hearse, headed to Gogri in Bihar’s Khagaria district, nearly 2,000 km from the financial capital, where the brothers worked as daily wage labourers.  “He did not want to enter the manhole, usko jabardasti utaara gaya (he was forcibly lowered into the sewer),” Rahul said of his brother Ramkrishna, 25, who died along with their uncle Sudhir Das, 35, on June 24. Rahul said they were construction labourers, who had worked earlier on building underground drainage…

“Thamizhaga arase Thamizhaga arase, saga venduma nangal? Appo than paarpaya?” (Will the government of Tamil Nadu pay attention to our plight only when we die?) This was the chorus of around 1,500 temporary workers of Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) that echoed at the entrance of the Board’s office for ten continuous days. The reason for the protest was the decision to outsource manpower through private contractors and overlook the demands of temporary workers engaged by the CMWSSB. Even as Chennai has grown in the past few decades, the sanctioned posts in many key departments remain vacant or have…

Access to public transport for people with disabilities has been a long standing issue often swept under the rug by the state government and the transport corporations. While the term 'disabled-friendly' has become a popular buzzword in various schemes, campaigns and budgetary promises, activists and citizens have pointed out how there is very little effort to really make public infrastructure accessible, safe and considerate for disabled individuals. The Disability Rights Alliance (DRA) is a coalition of independent, community-based organisations that advocate with and for people with any disability. One of their members filed a PIL highlighting the inaccessibility of the…

Translated by Sandhya Raju Bustling all day, this city is similar to a baby that actively plays around all day, finishing tired, having to be tidied up only to go about the same routine all over again. The role of conservancy workers in keeping our city streets clean deserves plaudits. The service that they have been providing especially during the pandemic as frontline workers is commendable! But how many of us really take time to acknowledge and appreciate the indispensable work that they do for us every day? The purpose of this article is to shed light on the ethical…

Izzat ka Pani depicts the struggle of Abrar Salmani, resident of Bhim Nagar, Mankhurd, one of at least 62 informal settlements in Mumbai that are denied legal water access and have no piped water supply. This film describes Salmani’s decade-long journey to access his Right to Water, a prerequisite to the Right to Life, guaranteed by the Constitution of India. Through this journey, we take a glimpse into the lives of Mumbai’s urban poor, the political and systemic injustice they face when trying to access water and sanitation, as well as the on-going efforts of citizen collectives to reform this…

On October 22nd, Citizen Matters hosted a tweet chat with Kaveri Medappa, DeliveryBhoy (an anonymous Twitter handle of a former delivery worker), and Abhishek Sekharan to discuss the issues delivery workers deal with on a daily basis. Kaveri is a researcher at University of Sussex, she is known for her work studying the experiences of delivery workers in Bangalore. DeliveryBhoy is an anonymous food delivery worker who brings focus to poor working conditions of gig workers in the country. Abhishek Sekharan, is a Researcher with Centre for Internet and Society CIS India doing interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies…

Everyday from 12 am to 3 pm, Mayank* works for Tokree, a grocery delivery app. He then switches to the ubiquitous black-and-orange Swiggy t-shirt, and from 3 pm to 12 am delivers food from restaurants to homes. “For every Tokree delivery, I get paid Rs 35. But with Swiggy, I only get a minimum of Rs 20 per trip,” he says. Mayank is one of the 3+ lakh strong workforce in the country suffering the brunt of low wages and poor working conditions in the food delivery and e-commerce industries. Unable to make ends meet, many of them are switching…