The collapse of building housing students in Delhi’s Satya Niketan should not be treated as another entry in India’s long catalogue of urban accidents. The immediate priority is to rescue those trapped and establish the precise cause. But the circumstances already raise a larger and more uncomfortable question: how does an ageing building, showing signs of structural distress, continue to house dozens of young people? Satya Niketan is not an anonymous residential neighbourhood.

Its proximity to Delhi University’s South Campus has turned it into a dense marketplace for student housing. Private paying guest accommodations have proliferated to meet a genuine demand, creating a lucrative economy around young people who arrive in the capital needing somewhere affordable to live. Yet this commercial success has created an obvious regulatory challenge: who ensures that buildings adapted and intensified for student accommodation remain structurally safe? The collapsed building reportedly housed a 75-bed private PG. Accounts suggest that it had previously been rented as flats before being handed over to a commercial accommodation operator.

There were also reports of repair or construction work at the lower levels and claims that the structure had shown........

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