Society

In India, repair is ubiquitous and it is cheap. There is always a repairer at the street corner or on the footpath or under a tree or even under staircases. Of course, there are repairers with shops or stalls or mobile carts. The informal sector provides earnings for an overwhelming majority of the skilled population but it fails to provide social security. During the lockdown, many of us would have quietly shifted to work from home. But in the informal sector, it was a crisis from the first day as they were being robbed of their basic right to work on the street.…

With Bengaluru Urban district recording 1,280 COVID-19 cases on March 23, the city has been witnessing a sharp rise in its spread.  With two young people in Ballari testing positive for the South African variant of COVID, the Karnataka government has begun tightening up its safety measures.  In Bengaluru, the BBMP has been asked to ramp up its testing to 40,000 RT-PCR tests per day. However, so far only about 37,000 tests are carried per day and the BBMP Commissioner says that the lag is a result of people’s reluctance to get tested. BBMP continues to ensure through its team…

We often discuss the poor representation of women in our Legislative Assemblies and the Parliament. Currently, only 3% of members in the State Legislature are women. And while half the seats in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Council are reserved for women, in many cases these councillors’ husbands are the ones attending to ward-level issues or even ward committee meetings. What about in much smaller units of society? Say, in residential apartments in Bengaluru. Do women in these complexes have enough voice and representation in their Managing Committees (MCs)? Apparently, not. MCs have significant responsibilities - they manage common resources…

If there is one woman who truly inspires me every single day, it is Vidya. Originally from a village in Uttar Pradesh, marriage brought Vidya to Mumbai 15 years ago. Her husband was already working in the city. As Vidya learnt, the big city offers opportunities that may be lacking in villages and small towns, but life can be quite hard. About six years ago, Vidya's husband deserted her, leaving her to fend for herself and their three children who were at that time aged 9, 4 and an infant. The middle one, a daughter, is a special child, with…

Raging through 2020 and continuing in the new year as well, the COVID-19 pandemic brought into sharp focus the state of health infrastructure in the country. The scramble for hospital beds across cities, oxygen scarcity and medicine shortage, the helplessness of patients suffering from other chronic or terminal illnesses highlighted the wide gaps in our public healthcare system. But apart from that, another issue that came into sharp public focus, after years of neglect, is the plight of senior citizens in our urban settlements. Unable to step out of the house as they came under the vulnerable category, and often…

Bibliophiles in the city finally found cause to celebrate over the last fortnight as the much awaited 44th annual book fair was held on the YMCA grounds, Nandanam. Citizens from all sections of society flocked to the event to check out the new collections and buy their favourite books. The event comes to an end today, March 9th. But how did the book fair in the age of the pandemic go? Plagued by uncertainty due to COVID, the book fair this time, organised by the Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India (BAPASI) was a much-anticipated event. Usually held during the…

The business and busy-ness of surviving in Mumbai leaves little time for city-based trivia. However, learning about how the city's streets and neighbourhoods are named isn’t solely about familiarization. By understanding our past, we can attempt to make better sense of our present. With the help of two rare and rather forgotten books, I did a cursory study of names of different spaces in Bombay. One book looks at the meanings of local names ordained to nooks and corners in Bombay. The other conducts a formal investigation into the official story of how this archipelago came to be. My short…

On the one hand, it is good news. The Chennai Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) is looking at creating a museum at the Kilpauk Water Works. The Police Commissioner’s Office in the city is setting up a museum at its old office in Egmore. The Corporation is debating the possibility of a city museum in Victoria Public Hall. Three great institutions of the city almost simultaneously working on museums for themselves! What more could we ask for? The question is how sustainable will these be in the long run given that they will almost certainly be run by…

ಸುಧಾ ವಿ ಉತ್ತರಹಳ್ಳಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಹೂವಿನ ವ್ಯಾಪಾರಿಯಾಗಿದ್ದು, ಇತ್ತೀಚೆಗಷ್ಟೆ ವ್ಯಾಪಾರಕ್ಕೆ ಪ್ರವೇಶ ಪಡೆದಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಚಿತ್ರ: ಪ್ರಗತಿ ರವಿ Translated by Madhusudhan Rao ಸುಧಾ ವಿ, ತನ್ನ ಹೂವಿನ ಗಾಡಿಗೆ ತುಂಬಾ ಹತ್ತಿರದಲ್ಲಿ ಓಡಾಡುವ ಹಸುಗಳನ್ನು ಓಡಿಸುತ್ತಾ, ಉತ್ತರಹಳ್ಳಿಯ ಪ್ರಮುಖ ರಸ್ತೆಯೊಂದರಲ್ಲಿ ಬೀದಿವ್ಯಾಪಾರ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಮಕರ ಸಂಕ್ರಾಂತಿಯ ದಿನದಂದು ಗ್ರಾಹಕರ ಹೆಚ್ಚಳ ಇದ್ದರೆ, ಮರುದಿನ ಕಥೆಯೇ ಬೇರೆಯಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಹಿಂದಿನ ದಿನ ತಾಜಾತನ ತುಂಬಿದ್ದ ಕೆಂಪು ಗುಲಾಬಿಗಳನ್ನು ಕೇಳುವವರೇ ಇರಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಸಾಲದ್ದಕ್ಕೆ, ಅದೇ ರಸ್ತೆಯ ಬಳಿ ಮಾರಾಟ ಮಾಡುವ ಇತರ ಮೂರು ಹೂಗಾಡಿಗಳ ಜೊತೆ ತೀವ್ರ ಪೈಪೋಟಿ ಎದುರಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಕೋವಿಡ್ ಪಿಡುಗಿನಿಂದ ಉದ್ಯೋಗಗಳು ನಷ್ಟವಾದಾಗ, ಅನೇಕರು ಅನೌಪಚಾರಿಕ ವಲಯಕ್ಕೆ ತೆರಳಿದ್ದು, ಅದರಲ್ಲಿ ದುಡಿಮೆ ಹೆಚ್ಚು, ಅದು ಮೂಲ ಸಂಪನ್ಮೂಲಗಳ ಮೇಲೆ ಅವಲಂಬಿತ ಮತ್ತು ಪ್ರವೇಶಿಸುವುದು ಸುಲಭ ಅನ್ನುವ ಕಾರಣಕ್ಕೆ. ರಸ್ತೆ ವ್ಯಾಪಾರ, ವಿಶೇಷವಾಗಿ, ನಗರದಲ್ಲಿ ಗಮನಾರ್ಹವಾಗಿ ಹೆಚ್ಚಾಗಿದೆ. ಮನೆ ಕೆಲಸ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ಸುಧಾ, ಲಾಕ್‌ಡೌನ್ ನಿಂದ ತಾನು ಕೆಲಸ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ಅರ್ಧಕ್ಕಿಂತ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಮನೆಗಳ…

This summary of a research project -- carried out by a group of students at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements -- brings out how the rich and powerful residents of an exclusive and quiet locality in the city influence the use of their public spaces by street vendors. While street vendors are a common sight in any urban neighbourhood, Sadashivanagar is not just any other neighbourhood. The daunting presence of government officials and politicians -- its chief residents -- fills the silence and emptiness of the inner streets of this locality. Sadashivanagar, cocooned in between Sankey Tank, Palace Grounds…