Archives - Question of Cities

Battered and forgotten, Joshimath holds a lesson in urbanising at the cost of environment

It’s been more than three months since the subsidence in the hill town of Joshimath, Uttarakhand, made headlines. Deep cracks appeared in houses, roads and fields --- triggering anger and anguish among the residents, who had been alerting authorities about…

For sustainable cities, begin by ‘seeing’ the unseen people in them

When people migrate to cities to make a living, they join the deprived urban classes in living a life of bare existence in hostile or inhospitable settings that are characteristic of large cities. Together, this large swathe of urban population…

Adivasis in cities: From people to paupers

A complex set of factors from displacement by huge development projects to landlessness and inadequate employment opportunities has pushed adivasis from their ecosystems in isolated lands and forests and into cities. Here, they provide services mostly in the informal sector…

Mumbai’s Kolis are living on the edge on their own turf

The Kolis, earliest inhabitants of the city when it was still an archipelago, have shaped the city. They helped landfill the sea waters between the islands and make the seven islands into a city. However, as the juggernaut of urbanisation…

Mumbai’s shiny new Coastal Road spells doom for the city’s Kolis

Lives and livelihoods of the oldest inhabitants of Mumbai, the Kolis, have been drastically affected ever since the Coastal Road construction began. The ongoing infrastructural work has not only altered the familiar coastline of the city but also the way…