The law
A footpath is a right, not a favour. Here is what the Supreme Court said, and how this site works. The personal story behind it is Why I walk.
The law is on your side
On 19 June 2026, the Supreme Court held that walking on a safe, demarcated, unobstructed footpath is a fundamental right, and that it overrides the privilege of motor vehicles.
The Court read the right into Articles 19 and 21 of the Constitution, and said municipal corporations and other civic bodies are obliged to build, maintain and protect footpaths. It also asked the Union government to set up a law and a regulator for pedestrian infrastructure.
Maniyar Iliyaz @ Shaik Riyaz v. P. Ayyappan, 2026 INSC 647. Summary at SC Observer.
“The primary right of movement under Article 19(1)(d) is the Fundamental Right to Walk.”Supreme Court of India, 19 June 2026
What the Court did not do is build a single footpath. It created no regulator and counted no pavements. A right is only as real as the slab under your feet, which is why this site exists.
Read more: After walking became a fundamental right (Life in India), on the judgment, the missing footpaths and India’s walking traditions.
The toll
- pedestrians killed on India’s roads in 2024
- 36,526
- a day, roughly
- 100
- of road deaths among people over 60 were pedestrians
- 42%
- among women over 60
- 57%
By the official count, pedestrians are one in five road deaths (20.6% in 2024), killed mostly by two-wheelers, then cars, then trucks. Researchers at IIT Delhi think police records undercount pedestrians and put the real share closer to a third. The older you are, the more likely it is that you died walking.
Source: Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Road Accidents in India 2024; IIT Delhi, Road Safety in India: Status Report 2023. Compiled in How safe is it to walk on India’s roads? (This Indian Life).
How this site works
No party, no politician, no individual. I go after the system that lets footpaths rot, not the hawker trying to make a living or the person who had no choice but to park.
Every photo is checked before it goes up. Faces and number plates are blurred where I spot them, and people sending photos are asked to leave them out. Hidden details in photos, like the phone that took them, are removed.
The data is open. Anyone can download it, map it, write about it, or take it to the city.