Relatives of the victim of a stampede in the New Delhi railway station mourn her death.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Two stampede incidents topped the headlines recently. Twenty train passengers were killed while trying to board a crowded train in New Delhi, a tragedy that came soon after the stampede at the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj. These happened even before we could recover from the horrible images of death, mourning, rushing ambulances and children wailing at the series of stampedes that happened in the past one year — at Hathras, where 121 people died in a preacher’s function, at Hyderabad during the screening of a blockbuster movie, and at the Tirupati temple. We are pained at deaths of innocent civilians happening in clusters so often. Unlike the mass mortality that happens in other conflict-ridden countries due to bombing, gunfights and terrorist attacks, bulk deaths in India are due to stampedes.
India is crowded with a burgeoning population of 1.4 billion. Wherever we go, we see only people in this country. Crowds gather at temples, festivals, fun shows, big movie releases, star performances, and sports events. When the situation becomes panic-stricken and uncontrolled, the crowd becomes a mad mob, totally callous in its apathy to the fellow human being. Most of the people who are killed in stampedes are the poor and the downtrodden. In a busy six-day work schedule which has infiltrated the lives of all people, a chance to visit the temple on an auspicious day or meet their hero or watch a show seems to be the only outlet for people to share a family moment together. On such occasions, only a spark is needed to initiate the stampede.
If the number of people attending the event is unchecked, or the crowd management goes out of hand, or the facilities for shelter, food and water are inadequate, everyone in the crowd suddenly goes berserk. Two years ago, a suspension bridge across the Morbi river snapped leaving 141 people dead. Sadly most of them were poor people who had gathered to enjoy the evening. They had spent ₹17 each as entry ticket to have some fun on the bridge. They did not realise that the money was the price of their precious lives.
Many of our nation’s crowded places do not have foolproof safety measures, protocols, guides, periodic checks, safety officers, crowd managers, planners, checklists, monitors or other basic necessities which are the norm in developed nations to avoid such stampedes. When the death of many people hits us, we are in despair and anger and feel disgruntled at the way human lives are lost. But all this anguish soon fizzles out and we will be engrossed in our own problems or some other tragedy takes centre stage. We do not realise that the moment we are born in our country, our life hangs by a thin thread, ready to snap anytime. The rich are better off than the impoverished. But nobody is safe.
People are upset when they read about unexpected en masse deaths. But I am seeing innocent victims every day who have lost their lives due to lack of safety measures in our country. A 70-year-old elderly man trampled by a roadside stray bull during his daily morning walk; a 25-year-old dad lost control of his bike and fell dead when a stray dog ran into him; a construction worker without a safety harness fell from the second floor of a building and injured his brain; a two-year-old thrown off the bike as she was seated on the front on the petrol tank; an 18-year-old boy broke his legs when the swing in a corporation park gave away; a 35-year-old mother fell into a manhole; the list is long and upsetting. Can anyone be held accountable for these deaths and injuries in our country? No. But they are not rare events; day in and day out, and every minute, such accidents are happening, in one or the other part of the country.
Obviously the government of any country has an immense role in preventing these accidents. We cannot be ignorant of this basic fact. But probably the government and policy makers have bigger problems to solve, and safety of the citizen in public spaces has never been a state priority. So, it becomes the prerogative of the individual citizen to care for himself and his family. Primarily we should be aware that many of our actions — driving, attending mass functions and walking on the roads — need to be checked for potential disasters. Unwarily we all do dangerous stuff regularly because everybody in our country does that.
We don’t know that standing under the scorching sun during mid-day to watch an airshow or a crowded gathering can be life threatening. We don’t know that motorbikes that go from 0 to 150 kmph in five seconds are totally unsafe on our pothole ridden, congested roads. We don’t know that if there is not even space to breathe in a jam-packed train station or a temple festival, it is a potential death trap. People travel on the footboard without an iota of fear or insecurity because everyone does it. We cannot always blame the government for not formulating a preventive protocol for this problem. It is our responsibility to protect ourselves and our children from these unfortunate events. We cannot expect all potholes, manholes, and deep excavations on the roads to be filled and barricaded all the time. We should teach our family and friends to be wary of this and be attentive while walking and driving on the roads. Till the government takes up safety of the common man in public arenas as one of its key agenda, we should make efforts to understand the importance of safety, spread the information and guard ourselves from such disasters.
Published – May 04, 2025 02:56 am IST