Patralekha Chatterjee | Lessons from rain tragedy: Can we make cities safer?

But what happens when these safe havens for readers and scholars turn into death traps?

On July 27, Shreya Yadav, Nivin Dalwin and Tanya Soni, all in their twenties, drowned in a flooded basement library in Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar. The three UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) aspirants were students at the Rau’s IAS Study Circle, a civil services examination coaching centre. The institute’s library was in the basement, without official sanction. As per the norms laid down in the Master Plan of Delhi 2021, the institute had permission to use its basement only for storage, parking, and utility area

On the fateful day, it rained heavily in the neighbourhood while many other parts of the city remained dry. This was not the first time that rainwater had flooded the basement library but torrential rain along with multiple levels of mismanagement and illegalities made it a ferocious surge this time. The roads outside got waterlogged. Encroachments obstructed the stormwater drains in the area. Ramps blocked the entry of rainwater into drains. A report by engineers of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi alleges that a vehicle passing through the waterlogged area triggered such waves that a gate of the institute broke down, forcing the rainwater to flood the basement library.

Thirty odd students in the library managed to get out with great difficulty but Shreya, Tanya and Nivin remained trapped. The three succumbed to death by drowning in rainwater.

The investigations are continuing.

How do we process flooded basement libraries and death by drowning in India’s capital city?

I never feared the rain. It was the stuff of romance, poetry, music. Now, a gnawing fear grips me when it starts raining heavily. Even if I am not directly affected, I cannot stop thinking that someone, somewhere may be trapped in a flooded basement, breathing their last. Survivors’ accounts capture the terror and the sheer powerlessness of those trapped in swirling waters inside a closed space. If this can happen in India’s capital city, just imagine the situation of small towns?

The tragic and utterly preventable deaths of three young Indians at the prime of their lives have ignited multiple conversations. A key one relates to governance. Unsurprisingly, in hyper-polarised India, even a tragedy or a disaster fuels a fierce blame game. A verbal slugfest has started out between the Aam Aadmi Party, which currently controls the Delhi government as well as the civic body (Municipal Corporation of Delhi, MCD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party, which calls the shots at the Centre, controls the Delhi police (under the Union home ministry) and which would love to wrest back power from its rival and an Opposition party.

No one comes out of this smelling or roses. And as citizens, we must not let the blame game distract us from the core issue -- the widespread acceptance of illegalities and violations of safety norms. Rau’s IAS Study Circle was by no means an outlier. Ground reports by the media paint a chilling picture. It is not one or two or three. Dozens of coaching centres across Delhi are guilty of gross violations of building laws and safety norms. Many classrooms and libraries in basements had no fire or emergency exits, electricity meters; there were mangled wires and narrow staircases. A recent report in a national newspaper noted that even the newer buildings in one locality were setting up libraries and classrooms in basements illegally instead of taking steps to create safer surroundings for students.

All this points to unconscionable negligence or complicity of various government agencies. A student had alerted the Centre, the Delhi government, and the MCD earlier about Rau’s IAS Study Circle’s illegal use of the basement and lack of safety norms. Nothing much happened. One also wonders how the local police were unaware of gross violations of safety norms when many institutes were a stone’s throw from police stations.

Death by drowning inside a library is a first, but many of these places were also fire hazards. Last year, a fire broke out at a UPSC coaching centre at Mukherjee Nagar in north Delhi. Sixty-one students, as well as a few others, suffered burn injuries on their arms, neck and legs and had to be hospitalised.

There are death traps everywhere. And it is not just flooded basements. There are collapsing bridges; there are flyovers that cave in, and canopies in airports that collapse. The common thread running through all of these fuses the illegalities, violations of safety norms, and an utter disregard for lives and the well-being of ordinary Indians.

It is easy to pin the blame on heavy rain. But in the time of climate change which fuels erratic and extreme weather, bursts of heavy rain are becoming the norm even in a semi-arid city like Delhi. That is the reality.

Which brings one to urban floods which are becoming very common.

How is India dealing with urban floods, which not only puts lives at risk but also disrupts the economy? By all accounts, not too well. We have seen this in many Indian cities in recent times. What do losses mean to India’s cities crippled by waterlogging year after year? By 2036, there will be 600 million Indians living in towns and cities. That is 40 per cent of the population. Urban areas contribute almost 70 per cent of the country’s GDP. The reckless urban expansion, inadequate drainage systems, poor maintenance, and illegalities galore will extract a steeper price as extreme and erratic weather become more frequent.

While the government talks about Smart Cities, the reality points to unliveable cities. The drowning of the three students in Delhi's flooded basement starkly illustrates how cities can become unliveable and unsafe when there is reckless unplanned growth, violating all safety norms.

At the time of writing, over 200 students are protesting outside Rau’s IAS Study Circle and have started an indefinite hungerstrike. They are demanding Rs 1 crore compensation for each victim’s family, transparency in the ongoing investigations and a permanent solution to the drainage problems and a safety audit of all coaching institutes along with a cap on their fees. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi is cracking down on basements of coaching centres used for unsanctioned purposes. The police have made several arrests.

With disasters happening with monotonous regularity, the deaths by drowning could soon become yesterday’s news.

But the danger remains unless we say “no” to rampant illegalities which generate death traps. There cannot be a trade-off between human lives and profits even if they lead to economic growth.