INTERVIEWS

In his office inside a park in Ward 176, Councillor V Anandam sits with the residents and Assistant Engineer and makes plans on how he can be more accessible to people. "Let us put up your face and phone number on a flex board in different areas so that more people can reach out to you," suggests a resident. "Yes, that is a good idea," he says. "After the rains, all the 400 plus streets in our ward will have a board with my phone number for them to reach me easily. This will invite the people of Ward 176…

As world leaders gather at Egypt’s Sharm El Sheikh for the United Nations Conference of Parties (COP27), climate finance, backed by India, is high up on the agenda. This refers to a transnational financial reserve that will aid the mitigation and adaptation strategies of the “less endowed and more vulnerable” countries.  While addressing a high-level Ministerial Dialogue on Climate Finance at COP27, India's Minister for Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Bhupendra Yadav outlined how there is no understanding of what really comprises climate finance. However, it was set up to address “loss and damage”, a term used to describe the…

Land is scarce in Mumbai. The island city to the south, an island only in name, is surrounded by the sea on all but one side. Towards the north, it is bordered by the neighbouring city of Thane. With such space constraints, to accommodate a population of 12 million, there is only one-way housing can go, and that is up.  How much housing can be built is thus less determined by land than by the amount of floor space, multiplied when the number of floors in a building reaches greater heights. This is controlled by the Floor Space Index, or FSI,…

Uma Anandan made the news for her controversial statement in support of Nathuram Godse in the run-up to the local body polls. She was elected from Ward 134 and is the lone councillor from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Chennai. Her foray into politics has roots in early childhood, with her father being a member of the Indian National Congress (INC)."I remember the times of Indira Gandhi and the issues such as corruption and autocracy that plagued the INC being discussed in the extended family. There was a slowly eroding value to the party that became apparent to me",…

"The houses on that street must not complain of mosquito menace again. Spray mosquito repellents there," instructs Shanthi (aka) Yazhini, Councillor of Ward 135, to an employee as I enter her cabin on the first floor of the ward office in Ashok Nagar.  A portrait of Thol. Thirumavalavan, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi's (VCK) leader, hangs in a place of prominence in her office. "When I was a college student, I heard him passionately talk about uplifting the downtrodden. Inspired by that, I joined the party to serve people," says the 48-year-old councillor and lawyer. VCK chose her as the councillor candidate of…

Each suicide is a personal tragedy that prematurely claims the life of an individual and has a continuing ripple effect, affecting the lives of families, friends and communities. Every year, more than one lakh deaths by suicide are recorded in India. A total of 1,64,033 suicides were recorded in 2021 alone. The recent data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) highlights that Chennai stands second among the metropolitan cities in the country with an alarmingly high number of suicides in 2021. The data shows that Tamil Nadu stands second among the states with highest number of suicides in…

Stella Rathna has been a part of the District Women’s Wing of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and was actively involved in politics for 15 years before being elected councillor of Ward 128. She is a resident of Palavakkam and has been elected from a ward reserved for women. In an interview with Citizen Matters, she spoke about the key challenges in the ward with flood management and shared her vision for Chennai. Ward No 128   Name of Councillor: Stella Jasmine RathnaParty: DMK Age: 43Educational qualification: M.Com; LLBContact: 9445467128 Map of Ward 128. Source: Greater Chennai Corporation Primary goals for Ward 128…

Several years have passed since the Slum Redevelopment Authority (SRA) was launched to rehabilitate slum dwellers of Mumbai, and promises of free housing and proper water and sanitation facilities remain unfulfilled.  After facing eviction from their own homes, residents are stuck in rented houses with developers neither completing the project nor paying rent - owed to them - to slum dwellers. Some projects have failed to take off the ground due to reasons such as disputes between co-developers. In other cases, people are stuck in transit camps for years together.  Those who have managed to get houses, claim poor living…

Yuvan Aves is a nature-educator, naturalist, writer and activist based in Chennai. He is the Founder-Trustee of Palluyir Trust for Nature education and Research, and along with his team of young naturalists, conducts a number of immersive learning experiences for children and young adults. These include walks and workshops in various geographies and biodiversity areas in Chennai. This type of teaching and learning has been termed as ‘nature based learning (NBL)’, which Yuvan explains, is a self guided, real world learning experience. Yuvan's team makes a range of NBL material and curricula for Chennai schools to apply. In an interview…

An idea first introduced by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in 2018 is now bearing fruit. The Society for Mumbai Incubation Lab to Entrepreneurship (SMILE) Council was announced as the BMC's business incubation centre, inviting start-ups and entrepreneurs with unique ideas to Mumbai's problems.  Four years on, the SMILE council has resulted in four innovative medical technology products about to begin use in BMC hospitals. Three others are in the pipeline, the latest being four mini-sewage treatment plants (STP) for slum clusters along the coast, whose usual outlet into the sea has been blocked by the Coastal Road Project. Decentralised and environment-friendly,…