GENRE: Voices

Let me start this editorial with an important caveat. It is not, in any way, an argument against welfare schemes for the poor. Well designed and implemented welfare schemes are today more necessary than ever. My argument here is against the casualness with which such schemes are announced in a public speech as part of a party’s poll campaign strategy. Without the slightest thought given to cost or consequences. As a reporter, I have many times asked candidates how they intend to fulfil their poll promises. Every candidate gave the same reply: “satta me aane do. Tab dekhengen (let us…

I have been living, eating, breathing, and sleeping plastics. And I am not saying this, as a campaigner or as an anti plastic advocate, or because I have been following the discussions of the #GlobalPlasticTreaty. I am saying this literally. “We all are”. The latest pointer to the all pervasiveness of plastic pollution being the discovery of  microplastics in human blood. There have been other studies that have shown plastic ingestion by fish and other marine mammals, by insects and birds, apart from studies that plastic is in our water and food.   So, how much more proof do we need? Do…

I was randomly browsing through my Linkedin feeds when I came across a post on a seminar advocating for inclusion of waste workers in the city’s formal waste management system. Convened by a reputed institution, the seminar had its heart in the right place, but what made me cringe was the term used to describe the people in waste.  ‘Rag pickers’.  They simply got the language wrong.  What’s wrong, you may ask. We all use the term  ‘rag pickers’ to describe someone who makes their living out of waste  - and after all they do collect some rags.  Even the…

“I want to dance with my daughter, take Marble (pet dog) for a walk, go on a second honeymoon with my husband, travel alone and just go out and buy something for myself.” These are the wishes of Swarnalatha, a young woman who has been struggling with a rare disease called Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis for the past 14 years in India. Swarnalatha has been bound to a wheelchair for all these years. While there is no cure for the disease, her dream to do something as simple as dancing with her daughter keeps her going. When Swarnalatha was diagnosed…

As I write this article, we are in the middle of May which began with unseasonal rainfall occurring in the plains of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers. There was snow in the mountainous regions of Uttarakhand. Since then, the sun is out and the skies are clear. But uncertainty remains of what the future holds, especially as the monsoon season sets in. This situation is worrisome, not only from a health perspective but also from an agricultural standpoint. Before moving forward, it is vital to look at the weather patterns from this winter to now. The weather has been hotter than…

The Rajasthan Right to Health Care Act (the RRTH Act) passed by the legislative assembly of the state of Rajasthan on March 21st this year, draws our attention to the quintessential issue of patients’ rights in healthcare. In the doctor-centric health care system in India, patient rights seldom feature in public debate, are rarely considered integral to realising our citizenship, and are not legally defined. Yet, patient rights form a very significant component of  citizens’ fundamental right to health care.  The Right to Health Care Act is framed with the objective of ensuring health for all, and also conversely, that…

Political pundits always insist that voting is our sacred duty, and all voters must vote. They say that if the voters turn out in large numbers, it will force the political parties to promise more in their manifesto, and also strive harder to fulfill those promises. Complete coverage on Karnataka Assembly Elections 2023: Information that you will need to make an informed choice This view is too simplistic, and does not look at the democratic process beyond the election.   Firstly, just the existence of a nice-looking manifesto does not automatically result in a vibrant democracy. There are no self-correcting forces…

"I know my identity is much more than bipolar disorder. It is just one part of my life”. Those are the words of US-based scientist Dr Yamini (name changed), who has continues to live her life with conviction, while living with Bipolar. On the occasion of World Bipolar Day (March 30), Citizen Matters interviewed Dr Yamini on how she has coped with life and her illness. And how others can learn to cope with similar conditions. Dr Yamini graduated in Engineering from one of India’s top Indian Engineering institutes, and moved to the US where she completed her PhD. She has…

Indian cities have long suffered the absence of coherent and consistent policy-making on urbanisation. As a result, they are plagued by governance deficits, inadequate infrastructure, poor land management, unequal access to clean drinking water, repeated bouts of flooding, severe densification of some areas and poor quality of air and public spaces.  For Devashish Dhar, a former public policy specialist at NITI Aayog, these are evidence of Indian cities being a blind spot in planning and policy. In India's Blind Spot: Understanding and Managing Our Cities (Harper Collins India, 2023), Dhar examines historical processes that led to haphazard development of Indian…

One of the biggest developments from India at the COP27 held in November 2022 in Sharm-el Sheikh, Egypt, was the announcement of a Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategy. This took place at the India pavilion, highlighting the theme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s LiFE (Lifestyle For Environment) initiative. LiFE aims to begin ‘a mass movement of environmentally conscious lifestyles that practise mindful and deliberate utilisation, instead of mindless and destructive consumption’. The energy sector has the potential to adopt such practices, cause shifts in demand behaviour and reduce emissions. The concept of an environmentally conscious lifestyle is not new. But…