India, July 13 -- New Delhi

In December 2019, a young veterinary doctor was raped and murdered on a dark stretch of a road in Hyderabad. Days later, women across the city launched an online campaign, 'Light Up Hyderabad', demanding that dark stretches, broken streetlights and blind spots be mapped and fixed.

The campaign went viral, with the lack of proper street lights becoming a hotly debated subject in many cities.

But six years on, not much has changed. Municipal surveys and corporate audits over the past year paint a grim picture: several roads and public spaces plunge into darkness in India's biggest cities.

Hyderabad's municipal corporation recently announced a Rs.1,340-crore overhaul after acknowledging that more than 70% of i...