New Delhi: Of the nearly 8 lakh road fatalities between 2019-2023, pedestrians accounted for 1.5 lakh or 20% of the deaths, data shows.

The ‘India Status Report on Road Safety’, released by the Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre of Injury and IIT-Delhi has shown that despite pedestrians’ right to use a footpath being guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution, compliance in states remains low.

A Supreme Court panel-directed audit carried out in 24 states found that roads having footpaths across most states and UTs range between 19-73%, with Maharashtra having the maximum number of footpaths, the Times of India reported.

Four cities per state were audited to check for compliance with norms around the footpath’s availability, width and height specified by the Indian Road Congress (IRC).

In Union Territories like J&K and Pondicherry, only 3% and 5% of the roads had footpaths respectively. In Bihar and Haryana, 19%-20% of roads had footpaths. In most cases, footpaths were not as per IRC norms, the paper reported.

The Supreme Court in its order this week said, "It is necessary to have proper footpaths for citizens. They should be such that they should be accessible for persons with disabilities and removal of encroachments is mandatory. This court has recognised that the right of pedestrians to use footpaths is guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution."

India Road Safety Campaign head Amar Srivastava told TOI that building proper footpaths and keeping them free for pedestrians is the most low cost intervention to prevent road crashes. "This should be the priority of every city administration and local govts," he added.

Pedestrians make up 21% of road fatalities globally and in India, nearly one-fifth of people killed in road crashes in 2023 were walkers, according to data from the World Health Organisation.

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