City Tantra
Client
Radio Nazariya, Drishti
Role
Podcast Producer and Co-host
Area of Work
Urban governance
and municipal rights
Duration of Project
September to October 2020
About the Project
This short podcast series was born from a curiosity of the city and how things work. Along with my friend, Piyush Pandhya, an architect by profession and a poet by passion, we imagined the first few episodes of this podcast series called "City Tantra", located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The questions emerged from our collective work around urban governance and the need to simplify complicated ideas of rights into simpler forms. As this was a pilot run, there are three episodes produced. This laid the foundation for the Radio Nazariya team to create a larger fellowship program under the same name, bringing more action and accountability through the audio programs.
About the Episodes
Episode 1: Land and our Rights
In the first episode, we explore the complex and often complicated concept of land from an ownership and rights perspective. We feature voices of various citizens from an area called Chandola lake, where there has been a conflict around ownership of land and the citizens living there. We also speak to Dr. Darshini Mahadevia, an emminent scholar who has worked on this issue for many years and currently teaches at the Ahmedabad University.
Photo courtesy: Manas Daxini
Episode 2: Issue of access to adequate housing
In the second episode, we explore the issue of housing and its accessto adequate housing for marginalized communities. Exploring the the intricate relationship between right to housing and human rights, we speak to citizens of various communities of Ahmedabad, as well as Dr. Adil Hossain and Ankit Jha from YUVA, creating a clearer image of the reality of many citizens of our country who constantly fight for the idea of a home.
Episode 3: Issue of access to adequate housing
In the third episode, we further explore the issue of right to housing and focus on the difficulties faced by marginalized communities, who often find themselves in the middle of hasty implementation of housing policies. We try to understand the various violations of rights that occur in the processes of "development" and its impact on people through conversations with ctizens of Ahmedabad who have a first-hand experience of this ordeal. We also speak to Smruti Junkar who has been working on this issue for many years to uncover the intricacies of policy and how it unfolds on the ground.