Society

Trupti and Pravin travelled from Nagpur to Mumbai a day before April 14th. Having not visited Chaityabhoomi for five years, Trupti wanted to pay her respects at the place Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar was cremated before it became crowded with devotees from across the country the next day. It was his 132nd birth anniversary the next day. "We've travelled all day to get here. Please let us in," Trupti pleaded with the security guard of the sanctum sanctorum, who had closed the gate for visitors at around 10:30 pm. Twice a year, on April 14th and December 6th, which marks the…

“Mountains are blessed places,” says Devki (named changed), 49 and mother of a 19-yr old youth, who died of drug overdose three years back. “Yet, there is a worrying side – growing drug abuse by youth, which tends to make Himachal Pradesh like neighbouring “Udta Punjab'', the title given to the drug riven state by a 2016 Bollywood movie. Devki and her family lied to the police while reporting her son’s death, as she doesn’t want to be identified as the mother of an addict, who suffered from withdrawals after his return from rehabilitation. The boy relapsed and succumbed to…

In a city that suffers a relentless monsoon with lightless damp days followed by a fleeting winter which is now marked by grey smog, spring is precious. And spring too is fleeting.  Avenue trees all across the city begin to jewel themselves in a new flush of leaves; coppers, maroons and fluorescent greens. And soon after, the flowers follow;  yellows, reds and purples. With bees buzzing on the crowns of flowering trees and birdsong cutting through the ever present traffic soundscape of the city. Spring in Mumbai is an act of resistance. Overworked, under-rested and always in a hurry, the…

Pritika has to travel from Royapuram to different parts of the city every day for work. Being a daily user of the government buses in Chennai, she says that she feels unsafe taking buses. "When I enter a bus, my dignity and sense of space are immediately taken away. I have to give up on the assumption that I can regulate the space around me. Women's safety in Chennai buses depends on the actions of the men on the bus. All that we can do is learn how to respond to such instances of harassment in public places. More often…

Life in resettlement colonies in Chennai comes with myriad issues. Our wait for proper infrastructure, basic services, benefits and entitlements has been long and the fight has been hard. My life used to revolve around my house in the Perumbakkam resettlement area. Even though I taught children from Classes 1 to 5 to read and write Tamil in our Reading Club, I was still confined to my household and managing its affairs. But as Community Champion, now my life revolves around the entire resettlement area, where I work to make the lives of people here better. An experiential learning programme,…

A recent study found Chennai to be the top city for women in India. Chennai ranked first among metro cities with a million-plus population. The parameters that the ranking was based on included safety and ease of living for women. At the same time, crimes against women in Tamil Nadu have seen an increase by 40% in 2022 according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau. So, how easy is it to navigate life in Chennai as a woman? Is the city as safe and convenient as perception seems to suggest? What does freedom mean for the women of…

Around 20 years ago, Kannan*, was a 20-year-old youngster taking up odd jobs to support his family in Chennai's Tambaram. He had dropped out of school. It was around this time that he came to know of an ongoing recruitment drive for a government job. The essential qualification for this job was to have a good lung capacity to be able to hold one's breath underwater. When Kannan showed up for the test, he found that the challenge was not in being able to hold his breath but rather, it was the water he was dealing with. He had been…

The St. Peter's Seaside Cemetery, Kadeshwari Marg, near Mount Mary’s Steps, was established more than a century ago, around 1906. It serves a sizeable population of Catholics, concentrated in Bandra. It is an active cemetery and large numbers of Catholics have their graves here. About 50 burials take place every year. On 2nd January 2023, the Joint Municipal Commissioner – Zone III, served a 7-day Notice on St. Peter’s Church, under Sec 299 of the MMC Act 1888, intimating the take-over of a section of our cemetery for road-widening of 9.15 meters, including about 10 graves and the compound wall.…

Sarani, The Whitefield Dance Collective, is made up of dancers (both professional and amateur) as well as people who believe that the arts are a great way to bring communities and their commonalities together. Since its inception in 2017, Sarani has steadily worked towards promoting the knowledge, appreciation, practice and performance of dance in the Greater Whitefield area. The movement had its roots in a fundraiser Samanvita, held in 2017, for the betterment of Government schools in Whitefield. When dancer Dipanjali Bedi was approached to perform for the event, she responded: “I look at this event as an opportunity to…

On the morning of January 31, a friend, Priya*, and I went to attend the public consultation for the ‘Pen Monument’ held at Kalaivanar Arangam. A group of us were attending the consultation, some in an official capacity and some as citizens who wanted to voice their thoughts on the issue. Little did we apprehend that this would lead to a long, traumatic experience for her, as some time into the consultation, she was sexually harassed by a group of men.If that wasn’t disturbing enough, she had to go through a seven-hour-long ordeal, just trying to lodge a police complaint…