The deaths of seven young students in a Delhi PG collapse cannot be reduced to illegal construction and negligent owners. The tragedy exposes a deeper national failure: inadequate educational infrastructure, unsafe student housing and a system that too often places profit above the safety and dignity of young Indians

The story so far: The tragic collapse of an illegal, multi-storeyed PG accommodation in New Delhi, which has claimed the lives of seven young people, has understandably triggered widespread public outrage.

The arrests of the owners of the killer structure are necessary and welcome, but insufficient as a remedial response, especially if such tragedies are not to recur. “Greedy for rental income, owners built extra floors,” reads one headline. Perhaps the larger point we are missing is this: it is not the greed of the PG owners alone that caused the tragedy; it is the product of a greedy system operating under the colluding eyes of those whose duty it was to prevent tragedies of this kind. Bigger point: If the discussion centres on illegal construction, negligence, arrests and compensation alone, we will miss the forest for the trees. The collapse of the building is only the visible manifestation of a much deeper crisis: the criminal neglect of education, not just in NCR but countrywide, and the failure to provide safe, adequate and affordable accommodation for students.  And this, not because we lacked the required resources, but because we value money above life.

Thanks to the scandalous failure of our education enterprise nationally, Delhi has become an educational refuge for young people from across India. About 50 per cent of the 700,000 students enrolled in DU colleges are from other states. Each one of them, numbering some 350,000, needs accommodation. The infrastructure available to accommodate them is woefully inadequate. Such a state of affairs serves as a goldmine for PG accommodation sharks. This is a national shame. This problem is not unique to Delhi. 

Here’s the question that stares us in the face from this tragedy: Why do so many young........

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