India’s leaders go proudly to different countries to showcase our strengths, our investment readiness, our market size, skilled human power, purchasing powers and price parity in manufacturing and services in various domains, and our tech leadership in several areas like software, pharma, healthcare, et al.
They boast of how Indian cities are transforming, how we are building world-class infrastructure and how ready we are for global investment. And they remind the world — we are one of the youngest nations in the world, with a median age around 35.
Sadly, no one will tell them about the tragic short life of Ms Banurekha, 22 years old, a techie working in Infosys, in Bengaluru. She wanted her proud family to visit her city and savour the feeling. The family drove from Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh and were caught in a sudden rainfall in the middle of summer in Bengaluru, in an underpass. The car got stuck and drowned, and the young girl died.
Youth, city, software technology, urban infra are all key words in her tragic end. But there is nothing for India to feel proud of. Each year in India, rains expose our badly designed, terribly built and horrifyingly managed metro cities. Municipal corporations can never set them right, not even to be able to withstand a sudden rainfall.
Cities are routinely drowned, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Bengaluru and so forth, colonies are inundated, drains choke, streets are overfilled with water, sometimes boats are pressed into service to rescue the stranded.
Billions of taxpayers’ monies are spent by ministers, elected representatives, municipal officials and bureaucrats on global visits, study tours, educational breaks. But nothing changes or improves. Our cities are difficult to live in and on a bad day, easy to die on. Potholes, uncovered manholes and overflowing streets, urban floods and decaying infra is not the recipe or proof of a great nation.
Banurekha had the world to achieve, now she is just a statistic. Sadly, she will be forgotten and nothing will change. India will continue to talk of its global rise, and innocent citizens will continue to face risks, like this unfortunate girl.
