Society

Just ahead of World Water Day on March 22nd this year, a report released by the United Nations showed that the bottled mineral water industry in India had grown by 27% between 2018 and 2021, the second fastest growth recorded globally. The signs are all  around us - discarded bottles everywhere, wherever you go. But have you considered that with every gulp you take from a plastic bottle, you could actually be introducing microplastic particles into your body?  In 2018, a study reported that eleven globally sourced brands of bottled water, purchased in nine different countries including India, were tested…

It has been just over a month. The incident at an educational institute in NOIDA where a young boy killed his girlfriend, and then killed himself, sent shockwaves through the city. Unfortunately, this is no isolated case. Deaths by suicide or criminal acts involving young adults are being reported with alarming frequency. Incidents like the NOIDA one is just another stark reminder of the grave mental health issues among a high proportion of our adolescent and youth population. Especially post-COVID. It is by now well known that certain behavioural trends among children are tell-tale signs of underlying mental health issues…

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…

“Mine was a happy family – an extremely romantic and loving husband and two adorable kids – a daughter and a son,” says 40-year-old Kiran (name changed) who works as Procurement Head in the Infra industry. “This is what the world saw in photos, on social media, and during outings. What no one knew was that my husband had Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia. He had been admitted to the psychiatric ward twice when he was at the peak of his career. I was working hard to make ends meet as bipolar disorder had made my husband go on an excessive…

“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…