Inequality | Inequality and access to urban resources |

Platforming domestic work will amplify existing vulnerabilities of workers

The platform and gig economy took a leap into the unorganised domestic work sector in March when advertisements promised ‘maids’ at a mere Rs 49 an hour. It swung the focus on a sector that goes below the radar across…

‘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…

Building bridges: Why it need not be street vendors versus cities

Though a cityscape is nothing without its street vendors and they are an integral part of a city’s economy providing many services…

Informal workers brave cruel heat for a few rupees a day

Outdoor and informal workers such as construction labourers, delivery drivers, hawkers and vendors are forced to brave the punishing heat to earn…

M-East Mumbai: Votes don’t improve lives but they vote anyway

The cramped, polluted and neglected civic ward in the city, which houses migrant workers and project-affected persons displaced from other parts of…

‘Climate solutions should be grounded in human rights, equality, and participation of worst hit’

Climate change is a human rights issue too, as judgments in India and abroad recently underscored. This recognises that not all people…

Portraits of Bengaluru neighbourhoods struggling without water

The modest and low-income neighbourhood of Krishnaiyyanapalya in East Bengaluru exemplifies domestic life in the face of acute water shortage. With their…

For five pots of water a day, women of Vyasarpadi mortgage lives and health

Chennai’s water distribution network is lopsided. Its northern areas like Vyasarpadi, with poorer and backward caste households, are neglected. Here, women’s daily gruelling routines revolve around water. Older women, young working women, college and school-going girls queue up for water…

Women architects: From slogans to struggle in making gender-inclusive cities

The work of women planners and architects has received little acknowledgment or visibility. That their perspective leads to more inclusive and sustainable…

‘We need to design and plan better cities for diverse groups of women’

Women’s lives have rarely been at the heart of planning and design of cities. Even when they have been, city making has…