[This article was originally published in Down To Earth] The potential of urban agriculture in alleviating food insecurity in cities requires holistic policy support from governments. Some 60 per cent of Delhi’s demand for meat is fulfilled by city-grown produce, as is 25 percent...
Category: PRC in Media
Caught in the Tangles of Court Orders and ‘Development’, the Yamuna Remains As Polluted As Ever
[This article was originally published in The Bastion] Crores have been spent by various state governments on different policies to ‘develop’ the Yamuna and bring it back to life. In the process, such schemes disenfranchise those communities that have lived by the river for generations....
Why Kolkata must reconsider its bicycle ban
– Debapriya Chanda [This article was originally published in Citizen Matters] In recent times, one of the lasting representations of Kolkata in popular culture lies in an iconic scene from the film Piku, where Bhashkor Banerjee, played by Amitabh Bachchan, is seen riding a bicycle...
In Pedestrian-Heavy Patna, Crores are Being Invested in Road and Metro Projects Instead
– Debapriya Chanda and Nishant [This article was originally published in The Bastion] The exclusionary model of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation—one of India’s pioneering metro rails—is being replicated in the planning of metro projects in tier two cities like Patna. This one-size-fits-all approach to...
Delhi’s Draft Master Plan 2041 Is of the DDA, Not of the People
– Akshita Rawat [Originally published in The Wire.in] The draft plan is exclusionary in its vision and approach as DDA has made no efforts to reach out to stakeholders like agricultural workers, farmers, residents of “unauthorised” colonies, etc. “The right to the city is, therefore,...
Privatisation of public transport: The risks ahead
– Palash Shakya [Originally published in Citizen Matters (Link to the original article)] PRIVATISING BUS SERVICES: THE IMPLICATIONS A Delhi Transport Corporation Bus. Pic: Ramesh NG/Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 2.0 As a student of history, I was inquisitive about the evolution of the BEST...
Delhi’s Master Plan Ignores the City’s Fishers, But This is Not a First
– Vaishnavi Rathore [Originally published in The Bastion (Link to the original article)] The Delhi Development Authority’s Master Plan 2041 has been released for public feedback. While the floodplains of the Yamuna river feature generously in the document, their uses are limited to aesthetic and...
The Invisible Farmers of Mumbai [Photo Essay]
– Geetanjali Gurlhosur [Originally published in Mongabay India (Link to the original article). Republished by Scroll.in (Link)] As the urban farming discourse in India has been expanding over the past few years, the limelight is often on upwardly-mobile urban citizens who take up farming for...
Livelihoods of Worli’s Koli Community Impacted by Coastal Infra Projects Further Battered by Covid-19 Crisis
– Geetanjali Gurlhosur [Originally published in The Firstpost. Link to the original article] At Mumbai’s Worli coast, 130 motorboats go out to the sea from the Worli bateri (canal) and over 200 smaller boats from two more jetties in the vicinity. The boats belong to...
Food forest initiative in Pune
– Rosamma Thomas [This article originally appeared in countercurrents.org. Link to the article] Vivek Gour Broome looks the personification of that nursery rhyme, “Old McDonald had a farm…” His farm west of Pune, beyond Hinjewadi in the village of Marunji, is an island of biodiversity...