Society

Lockdown has been tough for all, but more so for the hidden and forgotten communities around us. We wanted to create awareness about these communities who badly needed support - the people who have been constructing our apartments and houses, helping us with our domestic work and providing us with other essential services. Many of them have lost their jobs, some of them have not been paid salaries. Our journey began with a small group of migrant families in HSR layout, ward 174. We began by lending a helping hand to the efforts of BBMP and the Labour Department in…

We met this thin man, sitting on a chair in front of a roadside shop in KR Puram on March 28. He was happy to receive the food packets and water bottles we gave him. We thought he was sitting in that chair to guard his valuable makeshift shop. We kept watching this individual whenever we returned to the same road, after food distribution to needy people in KR Puram Railway station area. He was with another man the first day. His friend didn't accept food from us, but was happy to receive it on the second day, probably due…

ஆம். இனி கொரோனாத் தடுப்பு என்பது ஒவ்வொரு தனிநபர் கைக்கும் வருகிறது என்ற உண்மையை நாம் ஏற்றுக் கொண்டு தான் ஆகவேண்டியுள்ளது. அதுவும் நோய்த் தொற்று குறிப்பாக சென்னையில் அச்சமூட்டும் வகையில் உச்சநிலையைத் தொட்டு வரும் இந்த சூழலில் இக்கூற்று நம் மூளையை உசுப்புகிறது. மே 25 இல் தொற்று எண்ணிக்கை 11,131 (இது தமிழகத்தின் எண்ணிக்கையான 17,082 இல் பாதிக்கும் மேல்). சென்னையில் மட்டும் தினமும் இப்போது 400, 500 என உயர்ந்து வருவதை இங்கு நினைவில் கொள்ளலாம். ஊரடங்கு 4.0 இல் சென்னை ஏற்கனவே அறிவிக்கப்பட்டுள்ள சிவப்பு மண்டலத்துக்கான சில தளர்வுகளுடன் இயங்கிடுமாறு அறிவுறுத்தப்பட்டுள்ளது. இந்நிலையில் தான், நமது உயிரின் பாதுகாப்பு இதோ இப்போது நாம் எடுக்கும் ஒவ்வொரு சின்ன சின்ன முடிவுகளிலும் தான் என்ற நிதர்சனம் நமக்கு மேலும் ஒரு புதிய விழிப்பைத் தருகிறது. வைரஸின் பரவல் வேகமெடுக்கும் ஒரு அபாய தருணத்தில் வருகின்ற இந்தத் தளர்வின்…

It is a bright morning. My mind is filled with optimism and plans, even as I watch my mother carry on with the daily chores all by herself. Almost all of the work that goes into running the household is performed by my mother; others in the family do not share the load. A profound sensitivity dawns, catalyzed by my own consciousness and on realizing that the entire work is performed by the only woman in a family of five for the house to even function. After completing all the regular chores, she sat down and that is when I…

What can history teach us? I am often asked this seemingly old yet enduring question, in various ways: Why should we study old buildings? Why worry about people who lived long ago? The oft repeated quote, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it" is obviously not a sufficient answer one can offer. In this article, I draw on Donald Anderson’s biography ‘The Last White Hunter’ by Joshua Mathew to address this question. Donald Anderson (1934 – 2014), belonged to the last of four generations of Scots who made India their home. I was taken aback…

Child Sexual Abuse has profound consequences for the child. It is known to interfere with growth and development and has also been linked to numerous maladaptive health behaviour and poor social, mental and physical health outcomes throughout life. As adults, the abused face increased risk of domestic violence later in life, and could themselves be prone to violent behaviour and committing child sexual abuse.A longstanding social malady that needed intervention on a large-scale finally saw the light of day when the Indian government introduced a role play and activity-based module - titled School Health Programme – to be imparted in…

Well known artist Vrindavan Solanki has been able to sell his work online Art, rarely looked at as a necessary economic activity, too is facing uncertain, unsettling and challenging conditions in these pandemic times. Unfortunately, it comes at a time when art had been growing in Ahmedabad in recent years, as a business and investment. Now, as with all other activity, the lockdown has brought to a standstill the world and livelihood of both performing and visual artists. As Gujarat battles to contain the virus, with any kind of normalcy still a long time away, “everything arty will take longer…

Over the last few weeks, the sight of garbage pickers and their trucks plying on empty streets in the early mornings has taught us the value of poor migrant labourers who provide essential services in our metros.  From the relative comfort of middle-class homes, we have learnt about their lives and have been moved by their plight.  But, there is another aspect of their predicament, which became clear to me only when I began supplying essential drugs and food packets to their families.  For some years, my friends and I, as volunteers of the Aam Aadmi Party, had held health…

Between March 20th and 31st, the first week of the lockdown, around 3.07 lakh calls were received by the child helpline 1098, out of which 30% or 92,105 calls sought protection against abuse and violence on children. This impelled the Deputy Director of Childline India to suggest that the helpline be declared as an essential service during the coronavirus lockdown. Unfortunately, the lockdown has turned into inescapable prisons for children who were trapped with their abusers at home. The closure of schools as well as online classes also create scope for greater exposure of  children to online child sexual abuse. Another…

https://soundcloud.com/citizenmatters/ep4-lessons-from-bengaluru-cm In the concluding episode of our podcast series 'Lessons from Bengaluru', we explore how Bengaluru came to have a unique, vibrant citizen activism scene. While activism was a preserve of the few earlier, this changed since the 2000s as the city started facing more challenges. And now we have citizen activists holding authorities accountable on anything from infrastructure projects like steel flyover, to ward-level governance. Pravir Bagrodia and Srinivas Alavilli from two citizen collectives - Whitefield Rising and Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB) respectively - discuss how their groups came into being and what they have been working on. While…