India celebrates growth, rankings and grand infrastructure—but what is the real price of human life in a so-called Viksit Bharat?
In this hard-hitting piece, journalist Sucheta Dalal examines how civic negligence, infrastructure failures and regulatory apathy repeatedly lead to avoidable deaths—from contaminated water in Indore to bridge collapses, train accidents and industrial disasters. While probes are announced and officials suspended, accountability rarely follows. Instead, lives are reduced to ex-gratia payouts that vary wildly based on political optics.
From the Bhopal gas tragedy to Morbi, Gambhira, Balasore and beyond, this audio asks uncomfortable questions:
- Why is negligence cheap in India?
- Why do victims wait decades for justice—or never get it at all?
- And can recent court rulings and insurance reforms finally force accountability?
A truly developed nation is not measured by GDP alone, but by how it values and protects human life. Until negligence becomes catastrophically expensive, disasters will continue—and families will be left clutching compensation cheques instead of justice.
","author_name":"Debashis Basu & Sucheta Dalal"}