Archives - Question of Cities

Three decisive trends in cities we will be closely watching in 2025

As curtains come down on 2024, the hottest year on record, building sustainable cities has become more urgent than ever. What kinds of cities are being built across India as urbanisation picks up pace? What core ideas inform urban development?…

Gender-walking through Kolkata to reimagine a better city for all

Can walking around a city as women and other genders make it accessible and safer? Can a city be ungendered and welcoming of all? Kolkata’s Gender Community Walks have been getting students, professors, researchers and other professionals to walk in…

Move the air pollution needle to smaller and neglected cities

Conversations and policies on air pollution are mostly centred on Delhi and Mumbai but other cities and towns have been facing toxic air too. These are, at best, footnotes in national conversations on air pollution. Authorities here go in for…

Can India’s National Clean Air Programme ensure good air and environmental justice?

The ambitious National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), in its framework and practice, missed the idea of people’s participation or ‘atmospheric citizenship’. Despite people’s awareness and lived experience of air pollution, their democratic participation in addressing the issue remains minimal. The…

Air pollution hits women informal workers hard and different

Like other aspects of cities, air pollution too affects women and men differently. Besides the usual respiratory ailments associated with poor quality air, women’s reproductive health, mental health, even anaemia levels show adverse impacts. This is particularly acute for women…

City averages not good enough to measure air pollution

The average Air Quality Index shows only the central or typical value. It cannot be an accurate representation of air quality in different areas of cities. Beyond the average, it’s clear that some areas have cleaner air and better readings…

Lahore’s dangerous smog brought disease and death – and touched diplomacy

Through most of November, Lahore and Multan, among other places in Pakistan, suffered record-breaking air pollution that saw Air Quality Index in the 1000s. The official number seeking medical treatment for respiratory problems in smog-affected districts touched 1.8 million. Although…

COP is broken. Can India call it out, reimagine climate action?

The recently-concluded Conference of Parties, COP29, showed the process is compromised, hijacked by fossil fuels lobbies and developed countries, and unable to come good on climate actions urgently needed by millions in the developing nations, including India. Termed as the…

After COP29: Lessons and actions for urban poor and climate justice

While the role of urban areas in climate mitigation and adaptation efforts has been acknowledged, including at the annual climate summits, questions about the urban poor remain unaddressed. Without dedicated global public grants to build ‘urban resilience’, especially for urban…

The way forward for urban local bodies to finance climate action

Cities in India are at a preliminary stage of climate actions. A 126-cities survey showed that urban local bodies are spending two-three percent, or less, of their budgets on climate-related activities. Only 50 out of 4,800 cities are preparing or…