Articles by Nihira

Peak traffic on the busiest section of Tannery Road in East Bengaluru occurs around 6 pm. The heavy traffic makes driving through this narrowest stretch of the road time consuming — taking about six minutes to cover a mere 500 metres. Small shops line one side of this street which earlier was 40 feet wide but has now been reduced to a little less than 20 feet. The other side has the now familiar blue barricades of Metro construction. The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) has had to demolish a water tank, gas agency and a few other shops…

Nasreen and Minara (names changed) are both five months pregnant. The two women live in Bengaluru’s Kundalahalli slum colony with other migrant workers from West Bengal. Nasreen moved to the city around seven years ago. Minara is a recent arrival, having shifted with her husband shortly after their marriage eight months back. Now, Nasreen works as a cook for multiple houses in a residential complex. Nisara is a homemaker. The pandemic and its aftermath have seen little change for the better for pregnant mothers like Nasreen, expecting her third child and Minara, pregnant with her first. Nasreen told this writer…

Policy making on public health issues requires data of many kinds. One such important data category is the number of birth and death registrations. For instance, the changes in birth registration allowed researchers to note the drastic drop in Karnataka’s fertility rate over the past 40 years. On the other hand, death registration has played a key role in identifying health trends in the state, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. For citizens, birth and death certificates impact everything from admission into schools to entitlements like pension and other benefits. But what are the steps for registering and receiving birth/death certificates…

India has, over the years, seen several schemes that promised free or subsidised medicine. In 2008, the then UPA government proposed a Jan Aushadi scheme for nationwide subsidised supply of generic drugs. However, there were not many takers for the scheme at the time. While some chalked it up to poor supply chain management, others believe heavy pressure from the pharmaceutical industry was the reason the scheme failed to take off. Tamil Nadu had already established government stores in 1994 that provided certain drugs at reduced rates. But other states were slow to follow. Only some states like Rajasthan (2011)…

The pandemic has deepened the difficulties and dangers faced by sex workers in gaining and maintaining clients. Lockdowns and lack of relief have wrecked any semblance of financial stability they previously had. Moreover, while sex work is not illegal in the country, police violence against women categorized as ‘prostitutes’ continues unabated.  Such public sentiments and aggressive policing are rooted in a long history of brutally criminalizing sex workers. In fact, it has resonance in various legal and medical regulations enacted during British rule of South Asia. Historically, British authorities painted sex workers not only as purveyors of disease but as…

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…

A few days after the nation-wide Lockdown began on 24 March, 33-year-old Anita Salve, heard a knock on her door.  Authorities from Jana Small Finance Bank arrived in Chembur’s P. L. Lokhande Marg, where Anita lives, demanding that she repay her personal loan of Rs. 40,000.   She called Yogini Pagare to seek advice. Yogini, another resident of the P L mohalla, fields about ten calls a week from women like Salve. She is associated with Nirdhar, a grassroots group that tackles various issues faced by women who live in the slums of Chembur and Govandi. Yogini asked Anita to put…