Equity

In India, if you ask a commuter how many hurdles they’ve encountered on a road, they may not be able to count them- but they’ll definitely remind you that most roads are in bad condition.

Arun Pai claims to have learned this when he began enquiring about people’s experiences while walking through Bengaluru ( formerly Bangalore ) in southern India.

This quarter he set up a “fun problem”- called the’ country’s longest road work ‘- which invited people to walk or run on an 11km ( 8 miles ) extend of footpath and make a note of all the obstacles they encountered, like hawkers, garbage or broken slabs of concrete. Then, they were asked to give a score of one to five to the road.

” When you have details, it gets easier to ask the authorities to take action. Instead of telling your local lawmaker” the trails are poor”, you can ask him or her” to correct certain places on a road,” Mr Pai says.

Mr Pai, who is the leader of Bangalore Walks, a non-profit that supports walking, is among many member protesters who are pushing to make the country’s streets more pedestrian-friendly.

In India’s money, a journey company called Delhi by Cycle has been advocating for making the city more cycle-friendly and accessible. These running enthusiasts are organizing consciousness marches, developing walking apps, and lobbying for change in the legislature.

Proper roads are rare even in India’s largest towns, and they frequently are overrun by stallholders, parked cars, and even cattle. In some places, they double up as homes for the weak.

Even today’s trails are frequently poorly maintained or built to a common. It can be difficult to navigate transportation and crowds on foot.

Last month, Walking Project, a politician’s party in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, released a ‘ pedestrian statement ‘ ahead of Maharashtra state elections to identify the bad condition of the city’s roads and promote local politicians to take action.

In addition to reaffirming the manifesto’s demands for better parking, designated hawking areas, pedestrian-friendly corridors along arterial roads, and making footpaths more accessible for those with mobility challenges, the manifesto also included recommendations for better parking.

” Government statistics show that almost 50 % of the city’s population relies on walking, which is far greater than the 11 % that uses private transport and the combined 15 % that uses tuk-tuks and buses,” says Vendant Mhatre, convener of Walking Project.

” Pedestrians are the most underappreciated group of users when it comes to developing policies around transportation or road safety,” he continues.

According to the latest government estimates on road accidents, pedestrian fatalities were the second-highest after those of two-wheeler riders. In 2022, over 10, 000 pedestrians lost their lives on national highways across the country, with around 21, 000 more sustaining injuries in accidents.

Authorities frequently use band-aid techniques to stop road accidents, such as installing speed bumps or providing a signal. But what is really needed is inter-connected footpaths that can accommodate high footfall,” Mr Mhatre says.

According to research, addressing the issues of this forgotten group of road users can benefit a number of parties.

In 2019, researchers in the southern city of Chennai studied the impact the construction of new footpaths on 100km (62 miles) of the city’s streets had on the environment, economy and the health and safety of citizens.

They discovered that the new footpaths promoted walking among 9 % to 27 % of those surveyed, which reduced particulate matter and greenhouse gases. Additionally, they discovered that women and lower-income groups had new opportunities thanks to the footpaths, which also helped them save money.

The survey highlighted how accessibility and equity might be improved because people with disabilities and women might have nuanced requirements for footpaths.

” Very often, people do n’t have a benchmark for footpath quality, especially if they have n’t travelled abroad or been exposed to places that have good facilities for pedestrians,” Mr Mhatre says. He argues that this is the cause of the country’s lack of footpath quality.

He adds that the majority of people view walking as an exercise or leisure activity. And so do they think about the infrastructure that comes with walking through parks or walking tracks. In reality, however, people walk to various destinations daily, so the scope of walking infrastructure is far broader.

It’s high time our leaders gave walking infrastructure as much thought as it does public transportation, according to Mr. Mhatre, because it’s the most economical and environmentally friendly way to navigate a city.

According to Geetam Tiwari, a professor of civil engineering, the main issue is that too much attention is paid to reducing road congestion caused by cars.

” To improve the flow of traffic, authorities often narrow down footpaths or eliminate them entirely,” she says. This approach, according to Ms. Tiwari, is problematic because it makes it difficult for pedestrians to use public transportation, such as buses and metros, which can relieve traffic pressure.

She claims that allowing the congestion to continue and concentrating on improving the infrastructure for pedestrians will ultimately help solve the traffic issue.

Ms. Tiwari also contends that the federal government should require states to adhere to the recommendations made by the Indian Road Congress, a national organization that establishes standards for road and highway design.

She says that cities can also implement their own Non-Motorised Transport Policy (NMTP) to create better infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians.

It’s time more cities step up and experiment with a NMTP, she says, but only a small number of cities in India have done so so far.

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In protest of a contentious act that sought to redefine the country’s founding agreement with Mori people, MPs performing a haka temporarily slowed down the country’s parliament.

After being questioned whether her party was in favor of the bill, which had its first vote on Thursday, Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, the classic royal group dance began.

At the same time, a hīkoi- or quiet opposition february- organised by a Māori rights team is continuing to make its approach towards the money, Wellington.

The 10-day protest against the expenses, which started at the top of New Zealand on Monday and ended in a flurry in Auckland on Wednesday, has previously attracted thousands of spectators.

Although the nation is frequently regarded as a leader in indigenous right, the bill’s critics fear that the same rights will be endangered by it.

The political group that introduced the bill, Act, contends that the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi’s essential rules must be legally defined.

The key principles of the agreement have, over time, been woven into New Zealand’s regulations in an effort to remedy the bad done to Māori during invasion.

However, Act, a small member of the country’s ruling centre-right alliance, claims that this has led to racial division, and that the bill will make it easier for the treaty to be interpreted more pretty through parliament than the courts. The group’s president, David Seymour, has dismissed critics as wanting to” mix up” anxiety and department.

Critics, however, say the policy will divide the country and lead to the unravelling of much-needed aid for some Māori.

Following a 30-minute bust, the second reading was approved by all of the coalition’s constituent parties. Maipi-Clarke was suspended from the home.

Because Act’s coalition partners have indicated they wo n’t back it, a second reading is unlikely.

But this has not placated those worried about the bill, and its impact, with the hikoi still making progress along its 1, 000km ( 621-mile ) route.

In Auckland, it took an estimated 5,000 marchers two hours to cross the harbour bridge. Officials had closed two lanes, the New Zealand Herald reported, to allow them to continue along the route.

Danielle Moreau, who is Māori, walked over the Harbour Bridge with her two brothers, Bobby and Teddy, and told the BBC she “was hoping it]the hīkoi] may be great but it was much more spectacular than I expected”.

” I marched to make the place that Te Tiriti]the Treaty of Waitangi] is very important to our national identity”, said Winston Pond, who likewise took part in the march on Wednesday.

Our multicultural society is based on a intercultural foundation, which cannot be altered.

Juliet Tainui-Hernández, from the Māori community Ngāi Tahu, and her Puerto Rican lover Javier Hernández, brought their daughter Paloma to the hīkoi.

Ms Tainui-Hernández said those who turned out in support did but” for the courteous and diverse country we want Aotearoa]New Zealand ] to be for our tamariki mokopuna- our kids and grandchildren”.

Kiriana O’Connell, who is also Māori, said that the present treaty rules were now a sacrifice for her people, and she would never support a “rewrite”.

Under the proposed legislation, the convention rules that would be defined in law are:

• that congress has the full power to pass legislation and that the government has the power to manage.
• that the Crown upholds Mori’s constitutional right
• that everyone has the same rights as everyone else in terms of law and safety.

Act head Seymour, who is also New Zealand’s associate justice secretary, claims that judges have been able to develop concepts that have been used to support activities that are against the equality process because the principles have never been properly defined legally.

He says these contain “ethnic quotas in public organizations” that go against the spirit of fairness for all New Zealanders.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, nevertheless, has called the act “divisive”- despite being part of the same partnership.

However, the Waitangi Tribunal, which was set up in 1975 to check alleged breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi, notes the act “purposefully excluded any conversation with Māori, breaching the concept of association, the Crown’s good-faith obligations, and the Crown’s responsibility to actively protect Māori rights and interests”.

Additionally, it claimed that the bill’s tenets “misinterpreted the Treaty of Waitangi” in a” important way” and that this” caused major prejudice to Mori.”

The government’s a number of methods that have had an impact on Mori have been implemented with the release of the Treaty Principles Bill.

They include the closing of the Māori Health Authority, which was set up under Jacinda Arden’s Labour government to help make health equity, and reprioritising English over Māori when it comes to the standard calling of federal agencies, for instance.

According to the most recent census, about 18 % of New Zealand’s population consider themselves to be Mori, but many still face challenges in comparison to the general population based on indicators like health outcomes, household income, education levels, and incarceration and mortality rates. There remains a seven-year gap in life expectancy.

The Treaty of Waitangi is an agreement between the British and many, but not all, Māori tribes, which was signed in 1840.

Because it was only a spoken language until colonization, it is contentious because it was written in both English and Mori, and the two versions have fundamental differences in terms of land ownership.

Although the treaty itself is not a legal document, its principles have been incorporated into various laws over time.

A select committee will now be hearing the bill for a six-month period of public hearings.