I met Kavitha, a chirpy girl with a winning smile, on the first day of the dropout survey carried out by volunteers of Child Rights and You. “School hogthira?” I asked, “Do you go to school?” She looked up and nodded, half-yes, half-no, then shyly turned away. “Tamil teriyuma?” I egged on. It turned out sheContinue reading “How can we get school dropouts to go back?”
Tag Archives: Bengaluru
A silicon tide lifts many boats
Behind the multi-storeyed IBM House that looms over Bannerghatta Road in Bengaluru is a maze of bylanes that form Sudarshan Layout. Families and their belongings spill out of the tiny one-storey buildings onto the narrow lanes. Most of the residents in the slums here have not studied beyond primary school and make a living asContinue reading “A silicon tide lifts many boats”
Contract pourakarmikas’ fight for equal pay – a timeline of events
For over a year now, contract sanitary workers in Bengaluru have been waging a sustained fight against the contractor mafia which runs solid waste management in Bengaluru.
An education lost, a livelihood gained?
While the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 prohibits children working up to the age of 14, it is silent on the case of those in the 14 to 18 age group who are on the threshold of adulthood.
‘When we ask for our passbooks, they threaten to throw us out’
Twenty-four-year old Shanti looked at the calculator perplexed. According to the trade unionist standing before her, who had just computed her wage break-up, she was supposed to be earning Rs. 17,440 a month as a contract pourakarmika under the city corporation, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). “Rs. 17,000, not Rs. 1,700?” she asks to confirm.Continue reading “‘When we ask for our passbooks, they threaten to throw us out’”
At this ICU, seven nurses look after 45 newborns
The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the government-run Vani Vilas Hospital that handles extremely premature babies and babies with congenital birth defect — which require round-the-clock care — has a severe shortage of nurses.
Under Bengaluru’s trees
Did you know the tamarind tree came from Ethiopia two thousand years ago? Or that the vast majority of Bengaluru’s avenue trees are native to South America? In fact, so many commonly-used plants have come from that continent, the famous botanist and Kannada writer B.G.L. Swamy wrote a book called Namme Hotteyalli South America (South AmericaContinue reading “Under Bengaluru’s trees”
The Animation Instinct
In barely a few years, Bengaluru has seen a spurt in the number of animation studios based in the city. The number of studios has gone up from just a handful less than a decade ago to nearly 50 today, say industry experts. A 2015 National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) study onContinue reading “The Animation Instinct”
Freelance Copywriter | Cambridge, United Kingdom 