Society

Cities are often thought of as progressive spaces, antithetical to rigid hierarchical systems like caste. Babasaheb Ambedkar himself believed this to be true and advised Dalits to move to cities to escape casteism. Before him, Jyotirao Phule had echoed the same sentiment. However, studies as well as lived experiences suggest that caste continues to shape urban spaces, albeit often invisibly. The same holds true for Bengaluru, even as it is often thought of as one of India's most progressive cities. How does caste continue to play an often invisible, yet important role in Bengaluru? How does it affect different spheres…

Reminiscing moments from the early days of their romance, J Prasanna (30) and M Murugan (34) celebrated their 12th year anniversary over a simple feast two months ago. It was a celebration that marked the triumph of love in a homophobic society.  Murugan loves Ilayaraja's music, while Prasanna is a devout Sam Smith fan. Murugan is an avid reader of the works of Sujatha and Kalki and Prasanna pores over anything that is written by Sydney Sheldon or Jeffrey Archer. Testament to the common adage that opposites attract, Murugan and Prasanna fell in love in 2008, finding solace in each…

As urban citizens, we all have different desires, aspiration and expectations from our city. We raise issues that we face in our day-to-day lives, we voice our concerns, share our wishlists, but we rarely perceive things from the perspective of a child. This Child Rights Week (November 14th to 20th), we spoke to a few children from the city. Here is what they had to say about the city and what they want from it: K Mithun, Class 6, Chitlapakkam Due to COVID, all our day-to-day learning activities have moved online. While it is convenient for most of us, it…

This Child Rights Week, Citizen Matters brings to you voices from three young community leaders. This is the third story of the series. I am Bibi Rehmat, living in Behram Nagar in Bandra. I study in class ten. When I was 6 years old I came to Mumbai. I was born in Gonda District in Basti, Uttar Pradesh. I liked the open spaces and fresh air in my village, there’s too much pollution in the city. But here in the city, there are a lot of opportunities, more freedom compared to the village, and one can learn English more easily.…

This Child Rights Week, Citizen Matters brings to you voices from three young community leaders. This is the second story of the series. I am Shimon Patole, living in the rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) colony of Lallubhai Compound. Many areas of our community are unsafe from the point of view of children. This was also evident in the community mapping of safe and unsafe spaces done by the children themselves in 2018. Hence our children’s collective, the Bal Adhikar Sangharsh Sangathan, which works at the community level, has been working to make our area safe over the last 5 years…

10 years ago, Meenakshi Kumaran, a resident of Madurai, got married in a grand ceremony. Her parents not only bore the cost of the wedding but also gifted her 100 sovereigns ( 1 sovereign = 8 grams) of jewellery. That was only about 1/10th of the property of her father, though. Today, Meenakshi is penniless. Her extravagant and alcoholic husband who recently died had long sold off her jewels. After her father passed away a few years ago, her brother took over his property and refuses to give Meenakshi her legitimate share. And on her part, having grown up in a…

This Child Rights Week, Citizen Matters brings to you voices from three young community leaders. This is the first of the series. My name is Pravin. I am 16 years old and I live in Sai Shraddha area of Ambujwadi slum. I am a child leader of the children’s collective Bal Adhikar Sangharsh Sangathan.  I personally feel that our current system (the government and the officials) are not doing enough for the children. There is a limited budget and initiatives to support children and provide them with basic resources and rights. Children are ignored by everybody. It is important that…

Happy Deepavali! ‘Times have changed. Today's generation has changed a lot. Our times were so good. Values have eroded…’ Such complaints are made by every generation. Even Aristotle is said to have complained about the next generation! Our children are already complaining about how times have changed so much since they were children. Even those who struggled during their childhood have memories to cherish from their childhood.   ‘Why do you always talk of the past and become nostalgic about every aspect?’ ask my siblings and friends. Honestly, I am just enjoying the posts on Bangalore - Photos from a Bygone…

Representational image: Alastair/Wikimedia Commons: CC-BY-SA-2.0 On August 11, a mob gathered around Pulakeshinagar Congress MLA R Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy’s house in Kaval Byrasandra, protesting an allegedly derogatory post on the Prophet Muhammed by his nephew. The mob soon turned violent, leading to clashes with the police that resulted in the imposition of curfew. The police reportedly used tear gas shells and opened fire, killing three people, only after which order was restored late at night. While some have characterised this riot as an organised event, some others said it was a spontaneous reaction to a provocation. No definitive account of…

The numbers have finally begun to come down. Just as residents of Chennai had assumed that the daily COVID-19 figures would forever hover around the high 900s or low 1000s, the virus has shown signs of relenting. The statistics have taken a turn for the better, with the city registering around 750 numbers each day. The number of containment zones is less than 20. All of these are something to rejoice about. Unfortunately for us, many in the city have begun to assume that the pandemic belongs to the past. That this is a very foolish notion will be made…