Date:30/06/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/30/stories/2008063058280200.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

They are fighting for their walking rights

Staff Reporter

Group of college students stages a street play in city

— Photo: K. Pichumani

SAFETY CAMPAIGN: Students perform a street play on pedestrian rights at Anna Nagar West Extension park on Saturday.

CHENNAI: A group of college students on Saturday staged a street play on protecting pedestrians’ rights to safety and road space in a city where footpaths are rapidly shrinking.

The play was part of an awareness campaign by Walking Classes Unite, an initiative for pedestrian rights, in association with Anna Nagar West Extension Residents Welfare Association. Students of Pachaiyappa’s College and D.G. Vaishnav College staged the play.

The troupe members played the multiple roles of pedestrians, motorists, pavement vendors, autorickshaw drivers and politicians to depict the everyday battle for space on footpaths and roads. The victims of the battle are pedestrians, who put themselves at risk when they are forced out of footpaths onto the roads.

The scenes depict the plight of pedestrians. A child going to school, a pensioner walking to a ration shop and a physically-challenged man face several challenges when using footpaths. Electricity transformers, pavement shops, dug-up footpaths, makeshift stages to host political functions and illegally-parked vehicles eat up footpath space.

Photo expo

An exhibition of photographs on the condition of footpaths in several places in the city and Ambattur Municipality was inaugurated by Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta. He said that large scale measures were required to ensure adequate footpath space for pedestrians. Venkat, a volunteer with Walking Classes Unite, said, “Pedestrians have to raise their voices. Until we make this a political issue, an election issue, nothing is going to change.”

Anna Nagar West Extension Residents Welfare Association president V. Rajagopal, a few members and volunteers carried out a pedestrian safety audit in the neighbourhood. The recommendations in the audit include the closing of the inconvenient crossing at Thiruvalleeswar Nagar and opening of crossings at Jeevan Beema Nagar and after Thiruvaleeswar Nagar.