Fix our boulevard of broken pavements

Last week, Supreme Court recognised walking on footpaths as a fundamental right, urging the government to introduce a law to bring this right into effect. The court reacted to the death of a 5-yr-old boy run over by a truck in Karnataka because there was no demarcated space to walk. The bench held that the right to walk flows primarily from freedom of movement guaranteed under Article 19 and 21 of the Constitution. But paper must be converted to pavement. Footpaths in Indian cities remain treacherous-broken, encroached, neglected, or non-existent. A society should be judged not just by its flyovers or malls, but by the dignity of its most basic infrastructure. The footpath is the true test of civic culture, and India is failing it badly.

Encroachments by shops and parked vehicles and even invading 2-wheelers force citizens on to roads, where they are treated as obstacles. Disrepair-missing slabs, open drains, uneven surfaces-makes walking especially unsafe for the elderly, children and the disabled. The problem is compounded by cultural complacency. The shrugging 'We are like this only' attitude normalises our (non-)pedestrian attitude to city walking and makes it seem inevitable. It is not. The well-off rarely walk outdoors, making their absence in these public spaces result in little pressure to improve them.

India cannot claim to aspire to becoming viksit without tending to its citizenry's 'ease of walking'. On the part of its citizenry, it must recognise that footpaths serve a function and aren't there just for decor. A society that allows footpaths to lose their veneer of civilisation, and lets them devolve towards anarchic paths, cannot claim progress. The court has handed down a principle. Now we need pavements to match.