Society

Here's exactly what meets even to the undiscerning eye. The empirical evidence of so many young foreigners has found a sound statistical basis — about one in every four foreign students in India pursues his or her studies in Karnataka. The state is reported to have around 10,100 foreign students, which constitutes around 36.7 per cent of the total number of foreign students studying in the country. It is the leading state in attracting students from overseas, followed by neighbouring Andhra...

For parents with differently-abled children, things are better than they were a few years ago, but challenges remain. Maybe because perceptions haven't changed yet. To start with, things have to change at the policy level. "Making play spaces inclusive is not a matter of BBMP (Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike) policy. Those are still seen as 'special projects'. They (BBMP officials) 'agree' to do so because a bunch of us request/ demand them to," says Kavitha Krishnamoorthy, managing trustee...

A languid and sunny Sunday, an ostensibly picnic mood, some flashes of brilliance here and there, and a seamier look at literature brought the three-day Bangalore Literature Festival langurously to a close here today. The highlight of closing day was a tête-à-tête – ‘Mera kuchh saman, tumhare paas pada hai’ – between lyricist-filmmaker Gulzar and film writer Bhawana Somaaya. Dressed in his resplendent, trademark white kurta pajama, Gulzar started off from the point that he himself had in the...

Five years is a long time in the Internet space. The last five years, certainly, has been. And so has it been for the Centre for Internet and Society that completes five years here. When a group of concerned citizens got together to come under a platform called CIS five years ago, they had wanted to work on policy issues about the Internet that had a bearing on society. They, in fact, still too; except that the new media space itself has undergone a metamorphosis. Five years ago social media was...

India is one of the few countries where Amnesty International did not have a country office – except for an ephemeral period a few years back. The international human rights organisation has just launched operations in India, with a country office based out of Bangalore. Country Director Ananthapadmanabhan Guruswamy speaks to Subir Ghosh about the organisation’s immediate and not-so-immediate plans, the human rights situation in India, and of course Kashmir, Northeast and Vedanta – issues on...

Tasleem hasn’t taken a bath in three weeks, or received his wages for two months. He has been living the life of a destitute at Banappa Park, in the heart of the city, since then. Tasleem, well into his 50s, had left his worldly belongings behind when he fled the Bangalore Turf Club three weeks ago. He is not alone here — there are close to 300 others for whom life has been hell last few weeks. “I can’t possibly return to my native village (in Kishengunj district, Bihar). I have been eking out a...

When a group of parents with differently abled children came together in 2005 to lobby for parks and playgrounds in the city be made accessible to suchchildren, they faced an uphill task. They were not sure if the move would work. But some six years later, the initiative is being lauded by UNICEF as a success story, that can be emulated the world over. The initiative in question is Kilikili, a Bangalore-based trust that was set up to create inclusive neighbourhood play spaces for all children...

Minutes after I had put up a status message on Facebook saying that I was planning to pen first-hand accounts of domestic violence survivors, I was flooded with messages. Among those who responded was my friend, Nargis Yousuf *, from Bangalore. Er, was she a victim? No. But she had an account of someone. “Would you need the person to narrate it herself? As in, meet her?”, she asked. I thought otherwise. “But she won’t be able to speak to you here (on Facebook).”, Nargis added. So, was this...

Indian retailers suffered the highest loss of stocks to theft in the world for the fifth year in a row in 2011. Half of this loss was attributed to shoplifting by customers. The silver lining here was that India is the world’s only country where the shrink rate (loss of stocks because of thefts by customer, employees and supplier) came down in 2011, according to the Global Retail Theft Barometer 2011. The shrink rate as a percentage of sales was 2.38 per cent, costing local retailers Rs 3,470...

A recent Tata DoCoMo advertisement has drawn flak from all sections of society for depicting domestic workers in a negative light. The ad, one in a series of 13 with the catchline “No Getting Away”, shows a maid stealing a mobile phone from her employer and getting caught in the act. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), the self-regulatory body of the advertising industry in India, has so far received eight complaints from citizens over the ad. “This advertisement is extremely...