July 2008 Edition
I was introduced to the wetlands of east Kolkata when I chanced upon
Dhrubajyoti Ghosh at the offices of the state planning board on Camac
Street in 1983. As a rookie journalist, I was in search of stories. I had lots of
time on my hands because The Telegraph, the paper I worked for, had been
shut down, along with the rest of the Ananda Bazaar Group, by striking
leftist unions.
During the 51 days of that strike I had several opportunities to visit the wetlands and the garbage gardens in the eastern fringes of the city. I had grown up in Kolkata but knew nothing of this remarkable resource recycling system through which waste came back as food to the city. I found sewage being cleansed through natural processes and used to cultivate fish. The nutrient-rich water was also used to irrigate paddy fields. Vegetables were grown on garbage.
It was a decades-old system created and kept alive by the innovative spirit of local people. With Dhruba as guide, I scaled garbage hills and explored the sewage-fed fisheries. I was always impressed by his willingness to get his knees dirty. He was clearly no ordinary government engineer.
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June 2008 Edition
IT is now clear that the government’s efforts to save the girl child are
coming to nothing much. Despite a law and the large notices you will see at
clinics, the fact is that fewer girl children are being born. This is also not a
phenomenon restricted to the so-called rich states of Haryana and Punjab.
Sex selective abortions are widespread in Uttar Pradesh as well ---- and not
just in its better off western districts but also in the east of the state which is
known to be poor and struggling.
Aborting of female foetuses only because people prefer sons over daughters leads to disruption of the very balance of a society. It militates against nature. Male dominated societies are known to be violent and aggressive. There are a whole lot of other dissonances that creep in. The families in Uttar Pradesh that we have covered have men who not only marry late in life but also go to Orissa and Bengal to buy very young wives. So, on the one hand you have celibate men in their 30’s and 40’s and in addition you have the problem of underage brides. Many of the brides are ill-treated and run away.
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May 2008 Edition
I have been one of the thousands of middle class motorists who have found
construction of the bus rapid transit (BRT) project in Delhi a bit too much
to cope with. Such is the chaos it has brought in its wake at the
implementation stage that I have often wondered whether any good at all
can come from the project when it is completed. In the absence of signage
and traffic police, vehicles have gone helter-skelter. I have often found my
self in the wrong lane and wasted precious time getting out of it.
I can therefore understand some of the anger against the BRT. But the fact is that the BRT is an idea gaining currency the world over. By dividing up urban road space so that buses are physically segregated, travel becomes quicker, safer, cheaper and less polluting. People also get the space to cycle and walk, which planners and politicians find improves the quality of life in a city, apart from making it more egalitarian.
If Indian cities are to be engines of growth and change, then to begin with they will have to be more inclusive in their services. If they don’t move in this direction they will become tinderboxes of inequalities and social tension.
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April 2008 Edition
THE construction business has several exciting possibilities. It provides the opportunity to rethink design, size and use new technologies that meet demand but reduce our ecological footprint. This month’s cover story is on a company that has tried to enter the real estate sector with different values.
Chandrasekhar Hariharan’s Biodiversity Conservation of India Ltd (BCIL) has been developing housing in South India that seeks to meet the challenges of water and energy consumption and waste disposal. It has taken all of a decade for Hariharan to find his feet. His projects seek to avoid burdening already stressed urban infrastructure. They bring an alternative set of technologies into currency. With time, wider use and increase in demand, new benchmarks will be set and the technologies will be adopted more freely.
Hariharan used to be a journalist and has worked with NGOs where he was inspired to redefine housing. He was finally compelled to set up a business to achieve his goals because it was easier than dealing with several layers of government to implement a new idea. “There is a goldmine of technologies lying out there waiting to be used,” says Hariharan. The challenge before the government is to show flexibility and foresight in supporting such social entrepreneurship. Incentives are needed to promote technological alternatives.
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