Another tragedy

Progress has been made to eliminate unmanned railway crossings but much remains to be done

The sickening regularity with which accidents at unmanned railway crossings happen in India is worrying. It is also true that authorities have been aware of the risks of unmanned crossings for a long time and have been working overtime to redress the situation by either manning railway crossings or building flyovers over the crossings. This work is being done at a frantic pace across the country; yet it seems it cannot be done fast enough because infrastructure can only be built so fast. However, while apportioning blame of these incidents to the Railways, it must be remembered that the poor state of granting driving licences is also to be blamed.

In the recent tragedy, and countless others, it has been more than apparent that the driver of the bus was distracted. It is apparent that the system has failed because individuals, who transport children in particular, should be put to more stringent tests but the number of commercial license holders across India who have questionable driving skills remain high. Topping it all, licensing authorities in many parts of the country are notoriously corrupt and allow just about anybody to get licenses, as anyone who has taken a taxi in Delhi and Mumbai will know. It is also true that many parents knowingly, albeit often for economic reasons, actually put their children in harms way by sending them to school on dangerous modes of transport. This is not just on unregulated buses that do not adhere to the new bus safety standards driven by illiterate drivers with illicit licenses in rural parts of the country, but also in cities. In Delhi, despite threats of action by the State Government, it is apparent that illegal school vans continue to operate, stuffing in 12 children into a vehicle that is only certified for eight people. This is ridiculous and for the all the noise we make after an accident, short-term memory loss will make us forget the incident after a week. But the families who lost their children will live with the consequences for the rest of their lives.

Sure, the Railways and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways must work overtime on building new flyovers over rail lines. Maybe it is also time for the Central and State Governments to examine the system of granting commercial licenses across the country. We did ‘Notebandi’ but a future Government should explore the possibility of ‘licensebandi’; the consequences will be severe and there will be an economic impact. But if that is the price we have to pay to make India’s roads safer, and if we want stop the constant tales of children dying in road accidents, we must do it.