The Maoists might have been looking after their own interests more than those of the tribal people, and hindering State efforts to extend the scope of governance and development to their habitats, but they also raised a voice of protest against acts of injustice against the tribals.
November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month. Across the US and Europe, white ribbons mark solidarity with patients, caregivers, advocates and doctors. In India, silence reigns, even though 93 of the world’s 100 most polluted cities are here, and here, lung cancer is rising alarmingly among non-smokers, especially young women.
Nearly one in three lung cancer patients in India today has never smoked, and doctors are seeing women in their late 20s and 30s being diagnosed with advanced disease.
This is not a smoker’s disease anymore — it is a breather’s disease, driven by toxic air and environmental exposures.
A remarkable feature of the world in the wake of President Trump’s assault on the global trading and security system is the resilience of global interdependence.
Delhi has become a centre of controversy and politics for the continuously rising and persisting levels of high AQI. Rising vehicular emission, industrial expansion, burning of stubble, etc. remains to be the prime suspected reason for this. States keep blaming each other for transmitting it with lesser stricter action against polluters.
Policies are often described as gender neutral. In reality, they are rarely neutral. Women, men, and different social groups experience policies differently because they do not have equal access to resources, opportunities, or decision-making power. Social norms, unequal asset ownership, unpaid care responsibilities, mobility constraints, access to finance, education, and institutional power all shape how people engage with public programs.
Indian cities are often celebrated as engines of growth and opportunity, driven by expanding infrastructure and ambitious urban development projects. However, it can be noticed that access to public spaces and essential services is not experienced uniformly across social groups in such urban dwellings. This article reflects on a research journey that examines gendered inequalities in urban public spaces and services.
Indian urban policy increasingly frames cities as inclusive, liveable, and gender-sensitive. Yet, this narrative collapses under scrutiny. Women’s everyday engagement with cities reveals a fundamental contradiction: while urban infrastructure is publicly funded and collectively justified, its design failures are privately absorbed by women’s bodies, time, safety, and unpaid labour. The Indian city does not merely exclude women incidentally; it is structured around assumptions that systematically marginalize them as legitimate users of public space.