Citizens' Rights and Duties

Featured Articles
July 7, 2022 PMAY needs policy commitment to rehabilitate slums in small and medium cities of Gujarat
Need for legal framework for land rights in small and medium cities of Gujarat under PMAY (Image: Homes in the City)
December 6, 2019 A report by the India Rivers Forum highlights the need to focus further than the main stem of the Ganga river.
Distant snow clad mountains, the smaller hills and the Ganga river (Image: Srimoyee Banerjee, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
November 21, 2019 A report by NIUA brings to light the chinks in Jaipur's sewage system and suggests some solutions.
Routine check done by the sewage treatment plant staff in Delawas, Jaipur. The plant is part of the ADB best practices projects list. (Image: Asian Development Bank, Flickr Commons)
November 18, 2019 Bangalore's water utility is understaffed, under financed and unable to service the city's water needs.
Image credit: Citizen Matters
November 15, 2019 On World Toilet Day, we bring to light the labour of India’s sewer workers - those who do the unclean work that a Clean India relies on.
Photo credit: Sharada Prasad
Democratization of data through use of GIS technology
How technology enables monitoring and evaluation, or comparative analysis of developmental data from village to state level. Posted on 26 Mar, 2020 11:55 AM

Developments in geographical information systems (GIS) in India, both in policy and law, have thus far empowered to a greater extent government and business at national and regional level. The real challenge in this sector is to extend this technology to local communities for self-governance and to enable them to participate on an equal footing in regional and national development.

A view of a village in Almora district of Uttarakhand (Image: Raja Harjai, Flickr Commons)
Vulnerability in the times of Corona
When a pandemic strikes, it pushes the burden on the weakest in an unequal society. Posted on 25 Mar, 2020 10:54 AM

Disasters have the ability to disrupt everyday life. However, it is not often that we probe about what constitutes a disaster? How do we define it? Well, a disaster varies in definition for different agencies.

Image: Muffinn, Flickr Commons
In deep water
Will the World Bank honor its commitments to the poor in an Indian water project? Posted on 22 Mar, 2020 08:05 PM

In the wake of a scandal revealing that the World Bank may have suppressed knowledge of money for the poor being siphoned off by elites, all eyes are on the Bank to see whether its commitments to the poor hold water.

A water scheme violates Adivasi rights, threatens community water access and sacred spaces (Image: Anirudha Nagar, Accountability Counsel)
Women lead the way in water quality surveillance
Why women need to be trained and engaged in monitoring and surveillance of water quality at the community level in rural India? Posted on 06 Mar, 2020 01:45 PM

Historically, water is a gendered burden, with women being the primary caregivers responsible for cooking, washing and cleaning chores in the house and in modern times in institutions (teachers, anganwadi and healthcare workers). Women have traditionally been associated with various water related tasks - be it collecting, fetching, or purifying water.

Organised under WaterAid India’s partnership with GAP, water testing workshop (2019) held in Indore district aimed at training women and youth to lead the entire process of community water management – from planning to supply, operations and maintenance and to educate communities on water-quality issues. (Image: WaterAid India/Ashima Narain)
UP's Banda exemplifies water conservation efforts
News this week Posted on 05 Mar, 2020 02:00 PM

Limca Book of Records recognises UP's Banda for water conservation efforts

Local women and men engaged in digging trenches (Source: IWP Flickr photos). Pic for representation only
The miserable plight of sanitation workers
A report highlights the dangers for the millions of people who clean toilets, sewers and septic tanks the world over and calls for urgent action. Posted on 29 Feb, 2020 06:01 PM

Many of the challenges sanitation workers face, stem from their lack of visibility in society, says a report ‘Health, Safety and Dignity of Sanitation Workers’ produced jointly by The World Bank,

A latrine emptier is lifted out of a pit in Bangalore, India (Image: WaterAid/CS Sharada Prasad)
Parasite – the film and India’s disaster management
How different populations face different levels of risk and vulnerability during disasters? Posted on 25 Feb, 2020 02:36 PM

Parasite, the South Korean movie released in 2019 has gained attention worldwide especially after its historical win at the Oscars 2020. The film takes on two different worlds co-existing in a country but set apart by class and wealth.

A still from the movie Parasite (Image: Christiano Betta, Flickr Commons: CC BY 2.0)
Unravelling Kuttanad’s drinking water paradox
Floods such as in 2018 could take the situation downhill causing severe drinking water crisis. Posted on 24 Feb, 2020 12:55 PM

Surrounded by vast expanses of water, the Kuttanad region in Alleppey district, Kerala faces severe drinking water scarcity due to infrastructure failure and civic body inaction.

Lack of sufficient quality water, poor pipe connectivity and frequent breakdown of existing pipelines are common in the area (Image: Jayasree Vaidyanathan)
Community water purification system in a Delhi urban slum
Women swipe clean drinking water through an automated dispensing unit at the Lalbagh slum. Posted on 22 Feb, 2020 12:38 PM

It’s a dull reality that the state of water in the urban slum of Lalbagh near Azadpur in north Delhi was awful till a few years back. Hoards of people would queue up to get water from the public taps or the tankers along the road. Life was tough here and people got access to piped water supply only recently.

Once selected for the role, the women entrepreneurs were trained to run the community filtration plant and overlook all operations ranging from the management of customers to the plant finances. (Image: India Water Portal)
Decoding budget 2020
Is the budget a bummer? Experts speak at a panel discussion organised by CBGA. Posted on 10 Feb, 2020 04:35 PM

“Every single number in the budget, be it receipts or expenditure is a lie. The budget numbers can no longer be trusted, as the difference between actual expenditure and budget estimates are off by around 25 percent.

Woman farmer sifting grain (Image: Ray Witlin/World Bank CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
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