In January 2017, I joined CAG, where part of my work focuses on their solid waste management (SWM) projects. I started with the Mapping Waste Trails project, which aims to gain a better understanding of the lives of the informal waste pickers engaged in waste recycling in Chennai.
The other day, at the traffic lights, the “No U Turn” sign, with the red line slashed across the bent arrow, caught my eye. It occurred to me that these signs must be standard across the world.
Pedestrians are at the bottom of the pecking order of Indian roads. They are a group to be honked at, splashed with dirty rainwater, and given nasty looks for having the temerity to cross the road when there a motorised vehicle within a one-kilometre radius.
Recently, I had attended a meeting on the topic of "Privatization and Commercialisation of water in India" held in Bhopal on August 10th, 2016 organized by the National Alliance for People's movement and saw participation from activists and local as well as national NGOs.
On July 1, on a rather warm afternoon, over 600 students from several Chennai city colleges assembled on the Marina Beach in Chennai. They had come to participate in public awareness programme on road safety organised by CAG.
Chennai has zero community toilets.[1] Shocking, is it not? The Corporation of Chennai has somewhere between 800 and 1000 public toilets, some of which are located near low income settlements.
There is much to learn from the working of previously constructed community managed toilets. When it comes to public sanitation, it is the provision of facilities for the poorest that is often neglected.
In March 2016, CAG and Real Charitable Trust (RCT), a Chennai based NGO working with communities on health, solid waste management etc.,inaugurated a project with a long-term vision of revitalising the Madhavaram Truck Terminal (MTT) by working with city government officials, sanitation workers,
