Series: Insights into Bengaluru

A huge illegal hoarding near Ejipura Signal. Pic: Shree D N This huge IPL hoarding looms above the building next to Ejipura Signal. It’s not one hoarding - they are in plenty. There are no visible license tags or numbers on the hoarding. One such hoarding in a premium location like this costs about Rs 2 lakhs per month to advertise. As we capture it on our mobile, a person sitting in the shop below stands up, alarmed. He asks, “why are you taking the photo?” He sits back satisfied upon hearing from us that the IPL imagery on the…

A huge illegal hoarding near Ejipura Signal. Pic: Shree D N This huge IPL hoarding looms above the building next to Ejipura Signal. It’s not one hoarding - they are in plenty. There are no visible license tags or numbers on the hoarding. One such hoarding in a premium location like this costs about Rs 2 lakhs per month to advertise. As we capture it on our mobile, a person sitting in the shop below stands up, alarmed. He asks, “why are you taking the photo?” He sits back satisfied upon hearing from us that the IPL imagery on the…

They don't go to theatres to watch cinema. They can save no money with the earnings they make. They have many occupation-related health issues, yet their medical expense is just about 12,000 per annum! This is the fate of finances /revealed by a recent survey on garment workers. Garment and Textile Workers Union (GATWU) is an independent trade union of garment workers in Karnataka. Centre for Workers Management (CWM) is a research organisation working on issues of labour standards and labour rights in the formal and informal sector in India. Both these organisations worked together to do a study on…

Man-hole cleaning. Pic: Thamate Munuswamy, hailing from Dharmapuri district in Tamil Nadu, and Jagannatha, hailing from Chittor district in Andhra Pradesh, died due to asphyxiation from lack of oxygen and an excess of methane gas while cleaning up a 15-foot man-hole in Doddaballapur on April 3rd 2016. They were working for a Hyderabad-based contractor firm, Raus Construction Pvt. Ltd., who had signed an agreement with the Doddaballapur Municipal Commissioner for providing the under-ground draining system in Doddaballapur. Seeing Munuswamy and Jagannatha suffocate, two youngsters from Doddaballapur, Madhu, a garment worker and Muniraju, an aquarium worker, tried to rescue them but…

It’s a tiny single-room house nestled among similar dingy structures in a slum locality in Mangammanapalya. The house is located close to Hosur Road, which was an epicentre of garment workers' protests that took Bengaluru by storm when the Central government notified rules for Employee Provident Fund (EPF) restricting withdrawal of the PF till the age of 58. A cot placed on one side of the room occupies half the available space. On another corner is an old TV, the only source of entertainment. There is an open utensil washing-cum-bathing space at one end of the room and a kitchen…

“Mistakes happen deliberately or unwittingly. Sometimes convicts may not be the real culprits. Doesn’t everyone deserve a second chance?” asks Honnegowda, who spent 15 years in jail. Ten years post-release, he now stands as a testimony to how one can lead a dignified life even after serving life sentence. But, to what extent do society and the government support and help prisoners lead their lives post-release? For a just-released prisoner, reintegration with the world is the most important and challenging aspect. The Karnataka government may have taken a significant step by releasing 633 convicts who had served over 14 years…

“Mistakes happen deliberately or unwittingly. Sometimes convicts may not be the real culprits. Doesn’t everyone deserve a second chance?” asks Honnegowda, who spent 15 years in jail. Ten years post-release, he now stands as a testimony to how one can lead a dignified life even after serving life sentence. But, to what extent do society and the government support and help prisoners lead their lives post-release? For a just-released prisoner, reintegration with the world is the most important and challenging aspect. The Karnataka government may have taken a significant step by releasing 633 convicts who had served over 14 years…

Lawrence, in his late 30s, is seeing the world with the curious eyes of a child. As he looks around, he wonders how the world has changed and how different it looks. “The value of money is no more the same. In 1990s, I used to spend a good whole week with just Rs 100 in the pocket. Now everyone talks in thousands and lakhs. Strange!” he exclaims. In the last 19 years of his life, Lawrence was completely cut off from society — he had spent nearly two decades of his life languishing behind bars. Convicted in a murder…

Lawrence, in his late 30s, is seeing the world with the curious eyes of a child. As he looks around, he wonders how the world has changed and how different it looks. “The value of money is no more the same. In 1990s, I used to spend a good whole week with just Rs 100 in the pocket. Now everyone talks in thousands and lakhs. Strange!” he exclaims. In the last 19 years of his life, Lawrence was completely cut off from society — he had spent nearly two decades of his life languishing behind bars. Convicted in a murder…

In the first part of the series Loans for poor in Bengaluru, we explored how the system of loan from informal sources with high interest rates is pushing the poor deeper into poverty. The second part explored the system of bank loans for poor, to see whether it benefits the poor who don’t have securities. In the third part, we examine how micro-finance institutions function, and what do poor people feel about it. Mariyal, a 33-year-old domestic worker living in Ejipura slum in Bengaluru, has taken a Micro Finance Institution (MFI) loan for the first time. She has borrowed Rs…