Jashvitha Dhagey - Question of Cities

The journey from dingy to vibrant, meaningful spaces in Govandi

The cramped and ill-maintained Natwar Parekh Compound in Mumbai’s Govandi is hardly a place children can feel at home, run around, explore the world and learn. But they, facilitated by civil society organisations, have turned their dingy spaces into Kitab…

Feminism meets environmentalism but women left out of decision-making

As women, across barriers of caste and class and other social indices, assert themselves, they also touch upon environmental issues that are deeply tied to their lives, living conditions, work and more. They raise voices as women demanding gender justice…

Margins to mainstream: Ambojwadi shows the way to climate vulnerability mapping

Among the most marginalised of informal settlements in Mumbai, Ambojwadi is a picture of climate crisis where heat stress and flooding exacerbate the lack of basic amenities. The ground realities and lived experiences of residents here, as of millions in…

How urban plans can, and must, value trees

Urban development plans and master plans have traditionally seen trees as impediments to ‘development’, rarely acknowledging them as natural wealth of cities and hardly making provisions to protect and preserve them. This will no longer work in the time of…

Walking with the trees of Mumbai, their fragrance and taste in tow

The Mahua tree helped Indians survive two famines, the imported – yes, imported – Gulmohar has buttress roots that grow at right angles, the Rain Tree grows in silos, then there are Arjun, Putranjiva, Pongam, Fish Tail, Kumkum Phal and…

‘The Republic of Dhobi Talao’ with filmmaker Rafeeq Ellias

It rarely makes it to the chronicles and tourist guides of south Mumbai but Dhobi Talao is a world unto itself — a mix of communities, spaces, old buildings and ways of life, and a smorgasbord of food served in…

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…

From St. Inez Creek to Goa’s stories of water systems

The short film, Avnati, tells the story of the degradation of the St. Inez Creek that flows through Panaji through the lives and memories of people around it. From an idyllic place where people recall floating paper boats, the water…

‘Waste pickers are treated like step-children but the formal sector can’t work without them’

Most of Bengaluru’s waste used to be dumped in the villages nearby and waste pickers invisibilised despite their critical role. Hasiru Dala has been working to organise them, get government identity cards for them, and make them stakeholders in the…

To record and remember changing cities is to resist their erasure

As cities transform with breath-taking speed and the shiny new replaces the fading old, resisting the physical change is impractical and untenable. Resistance then takes other forms such as documenting, recording, collecting stories, organising walks, logging the everyday life, and…