Economy

Noticed a group of energetic, charming ladies with warm smiles and welcoming voices convening in East End Circle (Jayanagar, 9th block) on Saturday afternoons? If yes, they may be the empowered women from Stree Jagruti Samiti (SJS), a collective of domestic workers in Bengaluru. Around since the late 1980's due to the tireless efforts of Geeta Menon (one of its co-founders along with social worker Rita Roy) and various supporters/associates like APSA and SICHREM, SJS has campaigned for labour rights, dignified treatment, benefits, etc. With 1200 members and a part of the Domestic Workers' Rights Union (DWRU), it has spread…

 The University Women's Association Hostel site in New Thippasandra A colourful construction site. A few workers. Some children. A park with walkers inside and outside. Kids playing on the road and the school playground nearby. Fairly silent residents. Some cars and motorbikes moving or resting. It was a Sunday afternoon in New Thippasandra (ward no. 83) flanked by the busy and colourful market and the seemingly clean and green CV Raman Nagar Road dusty with vehicles. Aliya, little Mahruk, Prayas (the initiator of Spirited Caravans, a journey of mobile spaces offering glimpses of a friendlier city) and I walked around…

SIBM Bangalore organised ‘Colloquium-09’, a symposium on “The changed world and risk implications” for organisations on 10th September 2009. The event was saw speakers such as Dr. Jyoti Navare, Head of Department (Marketing and Enterprise), Middlesex University Business School, Sambasivan, COO, Deutsche Bank, Kalpana Balasubramanian, Director, KPMG and Dr. Harkant Mankad, Former Dean Emeritus, Russell Square International College, Mumbai. Prof. Pankaj Gupta, the Director of SIBM, welcomed the guests. Dignitaries at the Colloquium held at SIBM Bangalore. Prof. Gupta shared an anecdote about animals sensing tsunami earlier than their human counterparts by keeping their feet on the ground. The simple…

Packing lunchboxes, running the kitchen, checking homework, these are but a few tasks for a homemaker. But what if you add to all this, a thriving home business? For creative women like Debika Chowdhury and Meenal Jindal, whose earlier professional avatars were completely different from what they do now, running their businesses from home is also an outlet for their love for art and craft. It also ensures that they have enough time for the family on their hands and are able to give their best in terms of energy and time to both home and work.Meet the women L&T…

It is an often repeated story. You spot an exhibition of enticing cotton fabric and immediately start dream-designing the kurta that you can convert from desk to dinner wear. So you go ahead, buy the fabric, get it stitched as soon as you can say tailor, only to discover that it has shrunk and no longer fits you and has to be handed down to your slimmer younger sister. Then of course there is the somewhat inevitable pitfall of the colour running and turning your vibrant vermillion dupatta into a tame rust. Variety of cotton fabrics. Pic: Meera K. Despite…

“I never got any benefits from my contractors when I was working on my own but from the time I am working for LabourNet, I have my health insurance and was even paid when an accident happened a few months back. All my friends here are benefiting from LabourNet,” explains Suresh who is working all day at a construction site near the Tin Factory, KR Puram. He rests on a boulder to talk, wiping sweat off his forehead with his hands full of cement dust. Bengaluru-based LabourNet provides access to information about jobs and labour to construction workers and clients,…

Umesh V and his colleagues at The Mobile Store on 24th Main Road, JP Nagar 2nd phase shell out around Rs. 1200 to Rs. 1500 a month, from their own pockets. The reason? Hijras come to their shop every day, demanding money, forcing them to pay anywhere between Rs. 10 and Rs. 50 per day. “In a day, they come around four to five times. In a group there are around three or four of them. If you do not give them money, they use bad words or attack us and pull our clothes,” says Umesh who has been facing…

The markets of Madivala, Nelamangala, Banashankari and Naganathapura wear a new look these days. Buying vegetables, fruits and other home needs in the evenings has become easier now, thanks to the CFL bulbs that have replaced petromax lanterns in these places. They have illuminated smiles on the vendors’ faces too.Sarojamani, a small vendor for the last 17 years recalls that earlier the vendors had to either scramble for a place below the streetlight or spend on costly and low illuminating light sources or pack up their business by sunset. She used to spend more than Rs 900 per month for…

"Downturn is like baptism with fire. The day I surrendered my ID card, I was really down. It was a long day," expresses Suhas (name changed). Twenty-two year old Suhas started working with Sasken, a leading Bangalore-headquartered communications solutions technology company, in August 2008 as a fresh graduate. By the time he finished his six months training for his position as software engineer, the economic slowdown had hit his company. "The trouble started in October, bad news started pouring in. We were under constant apprehension. We thought we would go in December. In December, the firm started firing senior people.…

Citizen Matters Magazine - Vol 1 Issue 6Dear Readers, Let’s cut to the chase. Election campaigning has started in Bangalore. On April 23, voters from the city’s four parliamentary constituencies will elect their MPs. With the rising interest in voting amongst the educated classes, there will likely be many opportunities for you to directly engage the candidates when they come knocking. But what would you ask the candidates? Should we ask them to make our cities more liveable (which is largely a local government issue) or grill them on grave issues like economic slowdown, terror and communal violence? Or both?…