Ay dil hai mushkil jeena yahaan…

A recent survey by The Economist ranks Mumbai among the "world’s worst cities to live". 

In a global ranking of 140 cities, Mumbai has finished at 116. The city’s poor ranking has evoked hardly any reaction from its political leadership, or even its people, who seem to have resigned themselves to their poor fate. Are things really this bad, or aren’t they? After twenty years of economic reforms, the financial capital of one of the world’s fastest growing economies (all the things the ‘experts’ on CNBC or elsewhere tell us) ranks 116^th on “livability”. What is it that the world looks at, that we are missing out on?

The Economist’s survey gauged cities on five categories - political and social stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. Here is my take on the topic.

1. Stability: Prevalence of crime, threat of terror / military conflict or civil unrest:

Look at the numbers. More than 5,000 cases of petty crime and violence, such as chain snatching, rape, dacoity, theft etc. were reported in Mumbai in the first four months of 2011 alone. This excludes white collar crime, corruption and the like.

The city has seen 8 terror attacks in the last 10 years, killing nearly 500 people and injuring many more, not to mention the communal riots of 1992-93 or the serial bomb blasts of 1993 that killed more than 250. The world gives no marks for the “spirit of Mumbai” which springs back to its feet the next day after every bomb blast. Against this, I have visited countries where I was told there is no need to lock your home while going out – “nobody will take anything”.

2. Healthcare: Availability of private and public healthcare, drugs and general health indicators:

This is something that India itself scores very poorly on, and Mumbai is no exception. The United Nations’ Human Development Index ranks India at 119 out of 169 countries. The HDI measures life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being.

In Mumbai, public healthcare is the responsibility of the Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation. But for a city of more than 1 crore people, the BMC provides just 4 ‘teaching’ hospitals, 5 specialized hospitals, 16 peripheral hospitals, 28 municipal maternity homes and 14 maternity wards. Most of the residents (80 % plus) rely on expensive private medical care. The result? 32 per cent of the reported ailments in the city remained untreated. Even today, seven to eight per cent of all deliveries in Mumbai happen at home.

3. Culture and Environment: This covers factors such as climate, culture and environment.

Air pollution levels are five times higher than acceptable levels and a quarter of water the city drinks is actually  unfit for consumption.

Noise pollution is high, rising and during festivals reaches alarming levels.

4. Education: This covers availability and quality of public and private education.

Mumbai has literally thousands of schools, colleges and educational institutions. Clearly, no shortage of quantity here, but when it comes to quality, like the rest of the education system in India, there is still a lot to be desired. The education system is actually an ‘examination system’ and churns out graduates who are skilled at nothing. As per an Assocham study, India was at the last position in terms of quality of secondary education in seven emerging market economies.

Goldman Sachs says the lack of quality education was one of the 10 factors holding India back from rapid economic growth.

5. Infrastructure: Quality of road network, public transport, international links, availability of good quality housing, energy, water etc.

Ah! The less said about this the better! Mumbai’s transport system is one of the most congested in the world. More than 1.5 million vehicles cram the city’s potholed roads with utter disregard to traffic discipline. Even the smallest of rains are enough to clog the streets with water. Trains of 1700 passenger capacity ferry more than 4500 passengers each during peak hours. More than 60 % of the city’s population lives in slums, where even  shanties cost more than a couple of million rupees. 

For water, the city still looks to the Rain Gods every year. According to a World Bank study, of the 27 Asian cities with populations of over 1,000,000, Mumbai is ranked as second worst performer in terms of hours of water availability per day. And despite this, 700 million liters of water, or 20 % of its daily supply, is lost daily due to theft, illegal connections and leakages.

Basically, nobody cares.

Building sky-scrapers and flyovers does not constitute development; there is a lot more to making a place ‘livable’ than the city’s leadership would like to believe. But is anybody listening?

Noise pollution

When I went to Bulgaria 3 years back, one of the first things that struck me as remarkable (and there were quite a few!) was the extra-ordinary level of “silence” in the atmosphere. There just weren’t any sounds around. Nobody said anything loudly, nobody shouted. No cars honked. No hawkers selling their wares. Smooth and noiseless vehicles. No loudspeakers blaring music or ‘celebrating’ festivals. No noise at all. It was almost haunting, even during daytime. You could actually ‘feel’ the silence.

It was quite a change from the noisy world that we are living here in India. There is noise everywhere.  Just switch off the TV (here you go!), close your eyes and try to listen. Even in pin-drop silence, in the middle of the night, you can actually ‘hear’ something. Some of it will be specific sounds made by clearly identifiable objects, like the fan or the air-conditioner, or an occasional car passing by on the road below. But you will also hear a slight humming in the air. If you don’t, then that’s because you are not able to identify it, to distinguish it from a truly silent atmosphere. Because you have never ‘heard’ the real silence.

I think the biggest contributors to noise pollution in our atmosphere are the automobiles. Autorickshaws rattle as if the silencer is yet to be invented. In fact, I am surprised how such a vehicle is even given a license to be sold. Some of them create so much noise that they deserve to be out of the roads. It is a clear encroachment of an individual’s right to privacy, to a calm and peaceful surrounding, a right not to be disturbed. Another and perhaps the biggest contributor to noise pollution is the incessant honking of vehicle horns all around us. It is just too much, we honk anytime and everytime. Just start observing once you step out on the roads from today. We don’t even realise it. Here are some of the reasons people honk on our roads:

·         To tell the vehicle you are overtaking “I am overtaking you!”.  This is universal, followed more religiously than even the traffic rules themselves. I won’t be surprised, if, in a survey, someone finds out that more than 50% of the drivers think you SHOULD honk while overtaking others, that is the rule!

·         To tell the vehicle in the front “I am overtaking you from the wrong side”. This is used as a ‘disclaimer’, once you honk, you have the right to overtake from the left. Nobody can complain!

·         To tell vehicle in the front “I am overtaking you rashly.”  Same as the point above, disclaimer. Now the onus is on the other guy to ensure there is no accident.

·         To generally announce “I am coming!” and warn everyone else on the road and on the footpath to be careful (!). Shows how much confidence the driver has in his own driving.

·         To “announce” that the signal has turned green and now everyone can start moving! As if, the signal was red for so long that some of the drivers might have fallen asleep at their steering wheels. I find this the most amusing – just observe how many horns blurt the moment a signal turns green. I have never understood why.

·         To shout at the pedestrian “abey, andhaa hai kya?” or some other such homilies.

·         To call the security guard to open the gate.

·         To tell the security guard to open the gate fast!

·         To call someone in the balcony from the road below (!)

The list is endless, you can go on adding to it.

Most of the people honk quite mechanically most of the time, it comes as naturally as applying the clutch, break or the accelerator.

According to my observations, 99% of the honking is futile. Whatever you are trying to tell, the person is already doing it. A simple slowing down of the vehicle will do. In fact, the most interesting thing is that honking does not avoid slowing down anyway, since everyone honks so often that most of the people ignore it, defeating its very purpose. Excessive honking is a reflection of the agitated and irritated state of the driver’s mind, it just reveals his impatience, and even immaturity. It causes stress to everyone around. Noise pollution leads to aggression, hypertension, high stress levels, sleep disturbances and other harmful effects. Stress and hypertension in turn lead to several other severe health problems.

The U.S. President Barrack Obama, during his recent visit to India, said that India is no longer an emerging nation, it has already emerged. In some respects, this might be true. But in many others, we still have a long way to go.

Traffic Warden Scheme

Today's newspaper reports that the city's Traffic Department's scheme to enlist Traffic Wardens has received an enthusiastic response. This is good news. Under the scheme, the Traffic Department will enlist volunteers who will assist the Traffic Department to manage the city's traffic better. The volunteers will be given initial training by the department and later will be required to serve four hours a week assisting the department in managing the city's traffic. The Department has published eligibility criteria at its website. More details of the scheme can be found here. 

Not only is this a welcome initiative, the fact that it has received a good response it heartening. India has one of the worst traffic disciplines in the world, not only in comparison with the developed world, but even in comparison with the relatively  more 'backward' countries. I hope this initiative will make this better. Within India of course, Mumbai is much better (or should I say less worse?) than other large cities. Other cities should also emulate this initiative. There are so many good Samaritans around, who want to do something good for others, but don't know where to start. Such initiatives give them an avenue to do it.