URBAN POOR

In January 2013, over 5,000- residents were evicted from the EWS quarters in Ejipura near Koramangala in South Bengaluru. The eviction was to facilitate BBMP’s new plan -- a developer, Maverick Holdings would construct new EWS quarters for the 1,512 families who were residing in the quarters. It has been five years since the eviction took place. In this series, Citizen Matters will bring to you a reality check on the developments in the project, what the evicted families are up to and what went wrong in implementation. In the first part, we hear from Uday B Garudachar, developer and Managing…

June 16, 2011, was a landmark day for domestic workers the world over. The Convention C 189 was passed, giving domestic workers the world over increased hope of legislative and social justice. Eighteen countries have ratified the Convention so far, but the Indian government has remained non-committal. Domestic workers in India have had to fight long and hard for basic rights. Stree Jagriti Samithi is a women's organization that works for the rights of women who are domestic helpers. It addresses problems faced by these women be it in terms of wages or allegations of stealing or other aspects. Parijatha…

The BBMP, after a rap from the Karnataka High Court in April, decided to constitute ward committees as per the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976. We welcome this decision of the BBMP to constitute ward committees. This will ensure that decentralized governance takes place and that citizens have more say in the development of their wards. A press meet demanding inclusivity in constituting ward committees was organised by several groups and organisations on June 15th, 2017 (Thursday) at the Press Club. • BBMP should ensure that urban poor, slum residents and workers are part of ward committees • Working class…

For months, a group of young men in Marundeeswarar Nagar in Thiruvanmiyur had been trying to meet their MP Jayavardhan. They had a prayer: Would the MP renovate the community gym in their area? Once up and going, this historic gym served a population of more than 3000 slum dwellers. These men are the youngest in a long line of similar groups that have been using and taking care of the MGR-era gym. An earlier article in The Hindu talks of how the gym came into being and how these young residents had been striving to keep the gym running,…

Climatic and non-climatic factors intersect and create an entire tribe of marginalized and vulnerable people. Incidentally they form a large proportion of the informal economy of Bengaluru and other cities. This photo essay looks at the living and working conditions of one of the most marginalized groups in Bengaluru namely the waste pickers. The focus is on those who live in undeclared, blue tent, temporary squatter settlements. Our field research revealed that most of the inhabitants in these settlements are migrants from West Bengal, a distinct region in the East of India. For the residents of the informal settlements that…

People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) published a fact-finding report on Garment Workers' Strike recently. This is the account of what happened on the day protests erupted - excerpt from the fact-finding report: By most accounts, the Garment Workers' Strike of 18th and 19th of April, 2016 started at Shahi Exports and spread from one unit of Shahi Exports to another, and to other manufacturers' units as well. Around 4,500 workers walked out of the Shahi Exports unit in Maddur at around 9.30 am on April 18. Word spread from unit to unit, and workers of Unit 14, Shahi Exports…

People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Karnataka and Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression Karnataka released their joint fact-finding report on the garment workers strike of April 18 and 19 2016. The report, titled Thread and Tension- an account of the historic uprising of garment workers, was launched jointly by Rangamma from the BBMP Contract Powrakarmika Workers' Union, Bhagya from Garment and Textile Workers' Union (GATWU), Pushpa from the Stree Jaagruti Samiti (Domestic Workers' Rights Union), and Rukmini, an Anganwadi teacher. The report release was preceded by a panel discussion, moderated by Kavita Srinivas of PUCL, where the panelists spoke of…

I first met Faiza Aijaaz a month back. Her school in Hyderabad was one of the seven Minority Welfare Schools where our organisation was all set to start working. Faiza was one of the smallest girls in Grade 7, a class of girls aged between 11 and 13. Shy and reserved at first, Faiza turned out to be bright as a button. As a part of vetting the students and the school, our team was to have a short interaction with the girls. During this session – an activity that placed the spotlight on the various physical, emotional and societal…

Seeniammal, a resident of Parameswaran Street in Zamin Pallavaram had acquired a small piece of land for constructing a house three decades ago but never saw this coming. For her as for other residents of the area, the 2010 notification from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), accompanied by a letter from Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority, was a bolt from the blue. According to the notification and letter, Zamin Pallavaram was one among the sites chosen for research by the ASI and hence classified as “Prohibited” or “Regulated.” Effectively what this means is that homeowners in these regions would not…

Arun (name changed), a driver by profession, admitted his three-and-half-year-old daughter to a prestigious “international” school at Cox Town in Bengaluru around three years ago. His daughter was lucky enough to get a seat under the 25 per cent quota of the Right to Education Act. The Act intends to provide free education to children from disadvantaged and weaker sections of the society in private unaided schools. The school was located at a distance of half kilometres from Arun’s home and his daughter would walk to school everyday. In fact, the school’s positioning served the purpose of ‘neighbourhood schooling,’ that…