“Walkability is a European concept. People in India do not walk. You people from NGOs visit European cities, see people walking there, come back and try to copy that culture here.” The remark came from a young officer, in a meeting to review a major urban-roads project — one meant to serve not just cars, but the millions who walk, wait, cross, sell, cycle, and board buses on Indian streets every day.

The senior officer chairing the meeting had stepped out to take a call. In that small administrative interval, philosophy entered the room. A discussion about cost per kilometre became a civilisational inquiry: Do Indians walk?

One must wonder at the confidence of such a remark. In a country where schoolchildren walk to school, domestic workers walk to gated colonies, construction workers walk along highways, vendors push carts through traffic, devotees walk to temples, voters walk to polling booths — and politicians periodically rediscover the republic through padyatras — walking had been declared a European habit.

This would have been funny — if it hadn’t come from a policymaker.

Also Read | Inside the ‘most walkable city in India’: Elevated walkways, ₹1k fine for honking unnecessarily to women safety

India has never been short of walkers. Ram is said to have walked from Ayodhya to Lanka. Buddha walked the Gangetic plains until his teachings took root across the subcontinent. Adi Shankara walked from Kalady in Kerala to Kedarnath in the Himalayas and from Dwaraka in the west to Puri in the east. These were not incidental........

© hindustantimes