While there is a new wave of jingosim in the Indian media about the killing of Indian fishermen by Italian naval officers, no one seemed to notice or care about a government report about death on railway tracks.
According to a government committee report, 15,000 people die every year on railway tracks. That comes to around 41 people a day. Now, 6000 of those deaths take place in Bombay.
En route to Bombay Central yesterday, I noticed a group of rag pickers walking on a railway bridge over the Mahim creek and wondering how these people would escape death if a local train came on that bridge at that precise moment. They would have either been flattened or would have drowned in the Mahim creek! It's even scarier to see babies from slums crawling on railway tracks. Since it is a political issue, slums bordering railway lines will never be cleared, but not all deaths are of slum-dwellers. Many people cross tracks instead of climbing and using overbridges. Something needs to be done to curb this menace.
According to a government committee report, 15,000 people die every year on railway tracks. That comes to around 41 people a day. Now, 6000 of those deaths take place in Bombay.
En route to Bombay Central yesterday, I noticed a group of rag pickers walking on a railway bridge over the Mahim creek and wondering how these people would escape death if a local train came on that bridge at that precise moment. They would have either been flattened or would have drowned in the Mahim creek! It's even scarier to see babies from slums crawling on railway tracks. Since it is a political issue, slums bordering railway lines will never be cleared, but not all deaths are of slum-dwellers. Many people cross tracks instead of climbing and using overbridges. Something needs to be done to curb this menace.
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