Imagine this: a father wakes up early in the morning, gets his kid dressed, and walks him over to school. On the way to school, the five-year-old gets hit by a truck and dies — all because there was no footpath where they were walking. “Who could have ever imagined that it would be the last walk with his son?” asked the Supreme Court last week, as it recognised the Right to Walk as a Fundamental Right derived from Article 21 (Right to Life and Personal Liberty) in its landmark judgment on the tragic incident in Karnataka. 

The SC calls walking a fundamental right, but the city’s infrastructure seems to say otherwise with its broken (or missing) footpaths. According to the road transport ministry’s “Road Accidents in India” report, more than 30,500 pedestrians were killed on average every year between 2019 and 2024. Policy doesn’t always mean implementation. So our team steps out in their rained-out neighbourhoods to show you the unwalkable streets of the city.