India, Sept. 9 -- A five-storey hostel in Delhi collapsed after years of regulatory neglect and dangerous construction. Once again, it took a collapse for authorities to wake up

On Sunday afternoon, a five-storey building in Delhi's Satya Niketan collapsed. It housed a private student hostel, incongruously named Hostel Daze, packed with young men who had left home to study. At least seven are confirmed dead as rescue teams dig through the debris; the toll is still climbing, and dozens more spent the night trapped or in intensive care.

This was not an act of God. It was the foreseeable consequence of a system that has normalised looking away. The proximate causes are already visible. The structure was roughly fifty years old, built as a ...