About the Conversation Series

Cities are a common good, essential to the quality of life of the people that inhabit them. However, cities in India today, including Mumbai, are broken. Growth driven by market forces has ended up fracturing the natural ecosystem in our cities and neglecting many marginalised communities.
The main objective of this conversation series is to engage in targeted and detailed discussions on a wide range of topics in the area of urban planning, development, and governance. The intention is to identify law and policy solutions to various challenges facing the city of Mumbai today and nudge its inhabitants to demand more from their political representatives who go to polls this year.
At a fundamental level, each of our conversations will try to answer the following questions at the very least:

• What are your expectations from the city?
• Are these expectations met in the way the city is developing? If not, why?
• How can the governance of the city account for your expectations?
• What happens when there are competing expectations/interests? For example, major infrastructure projects for improving connectivity versus livelihoods of marginalised communities.

About the Speaker and the Second Episode

Mr. Zaman Ali earned his law degree in 2014 and has been litigating since then at the Supreme Court, High Court, lower courts and various tribunals. While Zaman works on a broad spectrum of cases, he is particularly passionate about environmental law and governance. In the socio-ecological field of public law, he has worked in matters concerning the protection of forests, including the Aarey Forest, critical wildlife habitats, coastal and inland wetlands, national parks such as Sanjay Gandhi National Park/Tungareshwar Wildlife Sanctuary and coastal areas. His practice is also concentrated on making representations on behalf of the rights of indigenous and other traditional communities as he believes that issues of environment and livelihood are intrinsically linked.

For our second episode, we spoke to Mr. Zaman Ali about ongoing infrastructure projects in Mumbai and their profound impact on the city’s environment. We also focused on how such development compounds existing social inequities and challenges faced by the city’s marginalised communities. Through this, we analysed the broader landscape of environmental and human rights law jurisprudence in the country and address concerns about potential regressions. 

For any queries or questions, please email isha.prakash@vidhilegalpolicy.in. 

Watch the recording here and hear it here.