The Killing Commute

IMAGINE IF 50,000 people had been killed over two decades while flying on planes and you cannot. Because even if 10 die because of the airline or the conditions of the flight, there is such an uproar that the parties involved are penalised and systems get changed to ensure that it doesn’t repeat. But 50,000 is the number of those who died because of Mumbai’s suburban trains. In submissions to the Bombay High Court during a public interest litigation, Central Railway, which runs one line in the metropo­lis, claimed that its death toll was 29,321 between 2009 and 2024, and for Western Railway, the other line, it was 23,027 from 2005.

Such numbers are what wars claim but these are just people who are trying to get to work. They pay taxes, follow the law, vote like good citizens and don’t even get the bare minimum in return—the right to not die. Anyone who has commuted in Mumbai has long back given up on any form of reprieve from animal-like conditions in peak hour. The irony in the submis­sion was that they said the situation is getting better even though thousands still continue to die annually, either while crossing tracks or just falling off due to the crowding.

The authorities have more or less given up in ensuring no one dies under the assumption this is a problem that cannot be solved. Like malnutrition or floods, the people will just have to rely on themselves for their survival. At the most, there are patchwork measures. The reason for the apathy is because the locals cater to the poor and middle class and their lives are considered expend­able beyond a point. There is a limit to how much can be spent on saving them. The other reason is that the responsibility is divided. The Rail­ways is of the Centre and, even though it is people in the city who are dying, for the organisation it is just one among the many issues in many places that it must negotiate with. There is no incentive to focus on fixing this particular problem. The state government, which is more at­tuned to the sentiments of local people, has the licence to throw its hands up and say they cannot do anything about it because it is not their responsibility.

A big reason why the lives are expendable is because the commuter does not have the identity of being a commuter. For instance, farmers have that identity and therefore their votes are based on it. And when there are farmer suicides, it is a determinant on elections. Commuters, or in a broader sense, consumers, are not a factor in Indian politics and when resources are allocated, politicians feel no compul­sion to address their needs. Right now, in Mumbai, they have decided that local trains are irredeemable. Instead, the alternative being pursued is to come up with alternative travel modes like the Metro or coastal roads. But they are less affordable and a long work in progress. Meanwhile, the deaths keep accumulating.

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