New Delhi, Aug. 25 -- India's cities have spent decades building for vehicles while treating pedestrians as an afterthought. The Supreme Court's insistence that properly demarcated, safe and encroachment-free footpaths are integral to human life therefore addresses a fundamental failure of urban governance. Its earlier recognition of walking on a demarcated footpath as a fundamental right was equally significant. Walking is not merely a recreational activity or a matter of convenience; for millions of Indians, it is the most basic form of mobility and often an unavoidable part of the daily journey to work, school, markets and public transport. Yet pedestrians routinely find themselves pushed onto carriageways because pavements are missing, broken, occupied by parked vehicles, taken over by vendors or obstructed by utilities. The consequences are not simply inconvenient but potentially fatal. A city that forces people to compete with cars, buses and motorcycles for road space cannot credibly claim to provide safe and equitable mobility.
The challenge now is to translate constitutional recognition into visible change on the ground. The Centre has issued advisories, but roads largely fall within the domain of states and local authorities, making implementation dependent on a complex chain of governments, municipal corporations, development authorities and panchayats. This is precisely where well-intentioned urban reforms often falter. India does not suffer from a shortage of guidelines on pedestrian infrastructure; it suffers from weak enforcement, fragmented responsibility and a planning culture in which vehicle movement frequently takes precedence over human movement. Footpaths are often constructed without continuity, ending abruptly at intersections or disappearing around flyovers and commercial areas. Others are designed around existing encroachments rather than pedestrian requirements. Accessibility is another serious concern. A pavement that cannot comfortably accommodate an elderly person, a wheelchair user, a parent with a child or someone with impaired vision cannot be considered adequate merely because concrete has been laid beside a road. The Court's intervention must therefore encourage authorities to think beyond nominal compliance and create continuous, accessible and genuinely usable pedestrian networks.
Making Indian roads safer for walkers will also require governments to confront uncomfortable choices about the allocation of scarce urban space. Removing encroachments cannot become an excuse for indiscriminate action against vulnerable street vendors while illegally parked vehicles, commercial extensions and permanent structures escape scrutiny. Enforcement must be fair, consistent and accompanied by sensible vending and parking policies. More importantly, the Supreme Court's formulation establishes an essential principle: where a road exists, authorities have a corresponding obligation to provide and protect space for those travelling on foot. That changes the footpath from an optional civic amenity into essential public infrastructure. States and Union Territories must now respond with measurable plans, timelines and accountability rather than another round of assurances. Roads are shared public spaces, not corridors reserved primarily for engines. Ensuring that citizens can step outside their homes and walk without being forced into moving traffic is among the simplest tests of humane governance. India's cities cannot become truly liveable until pedestrians reclaim their rightful place on the street.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.