Walking to school

Why India's children need safer roads to reach their classrooms

Thanks to the team at Deccan Herald.

The Supreme Court recently declared the right to walk on safe footpaths a fundamental right and urged the government to bring a law that declared this right and recognized the duty of municipal authorities and local bodies to build, demarcate, and maintain necessary pedestrian infrastructure. It passed this landmark judgment in a motor-accident claim case related to the death of a 5-year-old boy, who met with an accident while walking to school. 

This was not an isolated incident. 

Data shows that many children walk or cycle to school - 

• The NSO’s 2020 data showed that 60% of India’s children walk to school. (12 to 15 crore children walk to school each morning)

• Delhi - A 2026 report by the Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre at IIT Delhi, highlighted that 51% of the children walk or cycle to school.  

And, recent news-reports remind us that safety remains a major concern for the children going to school  - 

• Bombay - A pilot project, ‘Strengthening Road Safety for Children and Adolescents’, brought out a stark lack of sign-boards, walkable footpaths, drop-off and pick-up zones, and such around schools. 

• Bangalore - Broken footpaths, pothole-punctuated roads and encroached pavements lead the parents to drop their children at schools in a car or on a two-wheeler, rather than letting them walk, even if the school is nearby. 

Putting these together, it is clear that - 

• Over the years our country has prioritized vehicles over pedestrians, and our foot-paths are in a mess

• Crores of children walk to school each day, and yet our roads and footpaths seem to not take them into consideration.

While getting deeper into the numbers reveals the complexities of societal biases and inequalities, including gender and affluence. You are more likely to walk to school if -

• You are a girl than if you are a boy

• You are from a lower income household than from an affluent one. 

What the other biases and complexities are and what drives them needs to be understood better. 

Walking on our roads is an ordeal today - near schools or otherwise. Many of these do not have foot-paths. Where foot-paths exist we have found innovative ways to block them -  two-wheelers parked or even speeding through,  generators, security-cabins, stalls, construction debris, trash, men relieving themselves, and more. When walking becomes risky and unpleasant, people may turn to vehicles even for small distances, adding to vehicular emissions. And all this when walking is good for our body, and for the planet. 

It is not just the foot-paths but the school's surroundings that  need to be safe, clean and child friendly. Most schools’ surroundings today are chaotic, and this chaos peaks during the drop-off and pick-up times. It may help to discuss what needs to be done near schools  (eg: demarcating drop-off and pick-up zones, planting trees or installing foot-overbridges and signages) along with what cannot be done near schools (eg: selling tobacco or playing loudspeakers). Calmer surroundings can help children and adults start their days better. 

All of this is in plain sight, yet seldom discussed. 

So, what can we do about it?

We - students, teachers, school management and parents - need to take the initiative if we are to make our access to school a subject of discussion and action. It is high time we bring our school surroundings and the town’s foot-paths to the discussion boards, get deeper, and join hands with other stakeholders to make them safe, clean and child friendly. This is the environment education of our times. 

We can have open discussions at schools. These can include questions like -  How do we come to school? What are our (and as a corollary the school’s) carbon footprint? Would more of us walk to school if the access was safer? What is the connection between walking and good health? Do affluence,  gender and other factors play a role in how we come to school? 

These can be followed with a school-level project involving the children and teachers. A project where the younger children can map the surroundings, identify trees and design signage, the middle-school children can survey how we all come to school, number of pedestrians and vehicles using the surroundings and study local laws, while the senior students can calculate carbon emissions, interview officials, and present the findings. 

The journey may not be easy but if schools and other stake-holders join hands and get their act together the scenario can alter for better. If, for example, the local governing bodies can devote a fraction of the attention they have been showing on metros and fly-overs, to the foot-paths, our towns can be healthier, and our children safer. 

If, for some reason, we do not achieve the desired output we will still have learnt a lot. The road to school, and its surroundings, can themselves be learning spaces. Spaces that can facilitate the environmental education of our times, and nurture active citizens of tomorrow.