New Delhi: Can citizens be civic sentinels?
An uncovered deep pit dug by the Delhi Jal Board in west Delhi’s Janakpuri claimed another young life last week. On the night of February 5, Kamal Dhayani, 25, who worked at a private bank in Rohini, was riding home when his motorcycle plunged into the unmarked excavation. His body, still wearing a helmet, and his bike were recovered the next morning. The site had no proper barricades and warning signs.
Just three weeks earlier, in Noida’s Sector 150, software engineer Yuvraj Mehta, 27, had drowned after his car fell into a water-filled construction pit. While that site has since been secured with new barricades, reflective road studs, warning signage and lights, these back-to-back tragedies are a disturbing reminder of a continuing culture of impunity and reckless disregard for basic public safety, where visible hazards are allowed to persist until they claim innocent lives.
And this, unfortunately, is true of all of India’s major cities, which are riddled with all kinds of dangerous civic hazards—open drains, unfenced construction sites, dangling electrical wires, potholes, broken footpaths, waterlogged streets, and unmarked pits — like the ones that claimed Mehta’s and Dhayani’s lives.
Experts attribute this to bureaucratic apathy, fragmented responsibilities among municipal bodies, developers and enforcement agencies, and urban growth that has far outpaced inspection capacity.
Also Read | Broken barricades, dark road: How a routine sewer dig killed young man in Delhi’s Janakpuri
Over the past few years, almost all major municipal corporations have launched grievance platforms—such as MCD 311 in Delhi and PMC Care in Pune—to allow residents to report civic hazards. The stated objective behind such apps is to ensure faster response and accountability. But, complaints often pile up unresolved, inspections are sporadic, and systemic fixes are rare.
“The existing systems for ensuring safety in public spaces have failed because of fragmentation, unclear accountability, and the absence of tough penalties for neglect and inaction,” says Jagan Shah, CEO, Infravision Foundation and former director of the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA).
He believes it is time for a more structured citizen participation to identify and secure urban hazards.
“Citizens can become the eyes and ears of government agencies, including municipal corporations, in identifying urban hazards and ensuring public safety. They can be a vital part of the information network, especially given the severe staff shortages most municipalities and parastatals face across the country,” he adds.
“So far the government has treated citizens as consumers rather than as partners; this needs to change,” says Milind Mhaske, CEO, Praja Foundation, a non-profit that works to improve urban governance.
In cities across the world, citizen participation in urban safety goes beyond online complaint platforms. Neighbourhood or walking audits—structured assessments of local streets and public spaces—are a routine part of urban governance.
In the United States, for example, cities such as New York City encourage local communities to conduct systematic assessments of sidewalks, crossings, lighting, traffic speeds and construction safety through formal street safety audit programmes. Findings are mapped, aggregated and used to prioritise repairs and decide budgets.
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