HUMAN RIGHTS

Alia, 15, cannot move or talk. “She is totally dependent on me,” said her father Mohammad Asad, an electrician. “Her mother passed away almost nine years back. I have to remain with her most of the time”. Even 35 years after the world’s worst industrial disaster that claimed 3787 lives in one night (unofficial estimates, however, put the number of deaths at over 20,000 till date, including those who died from gas related illnesses since) and left 500,000 permanently ill, victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy continue to suffer the effects of the deadly gas leak from the Union Carbide plant.…

“Public transport services in Kochi are not friendly for those of us who have different kinds of disabilities,” says Rahul, a resident of the city, who has reduced mobility. Rahul works for an organization in Kochi and has been using an electric wheelchair for the past year. But the wheelchair is useful for him only inside his place of work. Outside the office, he never uses public transport due to its inaccessibility and poor connectivity, and has to be dependent on personal vehicles and companions.  For Rahul, and others like him, it is not just the availability of trains and…

Sometimes we wonder why inclusiveness needs to be demanded. Can't it come naturally? This seems to be the moot question that was raised in the 11th Chennai Pride March, held on June 30th. The walk started at around 3:30 PM from Chitra Theatre and ended with festivities and celebrations, including a flash mob dance. This year also marks the 20th anniversary of the first Pride March which took place in Kolkata in 1999. There are around 21 types of pride parades that happen annually, all over India and the Chennai Rainbow Pride is one of them which is held in…

28-year-old Kamlesh Kumar moved to Uttar Pradesh’s Noida from Patna eight years ago, in pursuit of a better life. Kumar is one among thousands of rickshaw pullers (rickshaw-wallahs), mostly in their mid-20s or early 30s, who moved to Noida in the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR), to try their luck and earn better wages and better standards of living than they could dream of in their home towns. Reality however has been less benevolent. Noida or Gautam Buddh Nagar’s rickshaw wallahs often find themselves constantly trying to juggle the hardships of rent, finding cheap food and getting affordable medical treatment.…

Take a drive from Dehradun’s iconic Forest Research Institute (FRI) towards the city centre, the Clock Tower, and you will observe a clogged, toxic and dead Bindal river. Much of the uncollected waste from the city finds its way here. Next to the river are almost 30,000 slum dwellings harbouring a population of 1.25 lakh people. It is also a home to around 100 to 150 waste picker families. Apart from Bindal, large numbers of waste picker families live in the slums of Kanwali, Lakkhibagh, Premnagar and Kargi. Enter Bindal slum and one can see many homeless children carrying waste…

C Akhila(name changed), a 12-year-old Muslim girl was forced into marriage by her family, six months ago. Her mother, who is going through a prolonged illness, persuaded her to get married to a 24-year-old man. The persuasion got violent when Akhila asked the groom to call off the wedding. “The girl threatened to complain to Childline if the wedding was not called off. Her family had hit her black and blue for doing so,” said Suganthi from Arunodhaya trust. If you think child marriages are confined to rural areas, Akhila’s incident that happened in Chennai proves you are wrong. Tales…

What does it mean to be a doctor? To have a doctor in your family? For most people in the mainstream of India it is a matter of pride, a status symbol. Maybe a way to earn a lot of money. And of course a way to heal people, at a big hospital in a big city. Maybe open a clinic of your own. Maybe open a hospital of your own (if your parents can afford it). Most doctors in the mainstream prefer not to treat their own family members for various reasons. I have a doctor in my family.…

Dr K Jayakumar of Congress defeated the incumbent and two-time MP P Venugopal of the ADMK. The other challenger in the fray was Makkal Needhi Maiam’s M Logarangan. Thiruvallur shares its border with Andhra Pradesh and has a  sizeable Telugu population in the constituency. With a mix of urban and rural localities, Thiruvallur has an average literacy rate of 83 percent. Thiruvallur Parliamentary constituency is comprised of six assembly constituencies — Madhavaram, Poonamallee, Avadi, Ponneri, Gummidipoondi and Thiruvallur. Thiruvallur was carved out as a separate constituency in 2008 after delimitation. A total of 20 candidates are contesting from various political…

The #MeToo movement in India gathered momentum in the south when playback singer Chinmayi Sripada exposed popular Tamil lyricist Vairamuthu for sexually harassing her during a show and threatened to end her career after she did not give in to his overtures. A dubbing artist too, Chinmayi was  expelled from South Indian Cine and Television Artistes and Dubbing Artistes Union following her allegations against Vairamuthu. She disclosed that she was slut shamed  and there was also a concerted effort to destroy her career in the film industry. More recently, the Justice S.A. Bobde in-house committee has given the Chief Justice…

Chennai Central results on May 23 saw the DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran emerging the winner. He beat his nearest rivals Sam Paul (PMK) and Kameela Nasser (MNM) with a comfortable margin. Chennai Central is a diverse constituency with a wide cross-section of voters belonging to all socio-economic classes. There is cultural diversity as well - a sizeable Hindi and Urdu speaking population, apart from Telugus and Malayalis.  It has a significant Muslim population - over 2 lakhs - in Chepauk – Triplicane and Egmore assembly constituencies. Chennai Central Parliamentary constituency is comprised of six assembly constituencies — Villivakkam, Egmore (SC), Harbour,…