‘Garden city’ parks closed in the afternoons, outdoor Bengaluru workers left with no refuge

Even as temperatures in Bengaluru reached 37.6 degrees celsius this April, many public parks and green spaces in the Garden City remain closed during the peak afternoon hours, depriving city dwellers, especially outdoor workers, of a space for refuge.

“My uniform is soaked in sweat, there is no place for us to drink water, eat our lunches or even sit for a moment in the shade,” said 40-year-old Bhima, who has been working as a pourakarmika, a municipal sanitation worker, for the past eight years. While he and his peers have worked through heat, rain spells and winter mornings, he said the last couple of months have been particularly harsh during his shift from 6 am to 12 pm.

Susheela N, a street vendor in Banashankari, vends in the partially-shaded part of a busy street, which she feels has a high footfall of customers. She works from 6 am till noon every day, then walks three kilometres home and returns at 4 pm for her evening sales. The park she vends next to is closed in the afternoon. “If the park was open, I would’ve had my lunch there, rested and continued vending from 3 pm,” she said.

Bengaluru has 1,020 developed parks, spanning almost four square kilometres, which...

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