Last week’s blaze at a factory in outer Delhi’s Mundka area that snuffed out at least 27 lives, 21 of them women, adds to the long list of avoidable fire tragedies that show the country’s urbanisation story in poor light. The failings that have come to light in the four days since the incident evoke a sense of deja vu: The building did not have a no objection certificate from the fire department — more worryingly, the owners had not even applied for one — and it had only one escape route. The manufacturing unit’s licence had lapsed. Though the North Delhi Municipality had cancelled the permission after it was found that the building did not meet the required criteria, the industrial activities went on with impunity even after a Supreme Court monitoring committee raised red flags. Such omissions invite questions about the municipality’s enforcement mechanisms. It’s also apparent that the authorities have not learnt any lesson from the Anaj Mandi fire that killed more than 40 people in December 2019 — as well as several other mishaps dating back to the Uphaar Cinema Tragedy of 1997.
Localities such as Mundka and Anaj Mandi have become a prominent feature of Delhi’s economic landscape — and that of several other parts of the country — in the aftermath of liberalisation. Factories exist cheek-by-jowl with warehouses, shops selling construction materials, banquet halls, and other multi-floor establishments. Largely unregulated, they are sources of livelihood for a substantial section of the city’s population, many of whom live at its margins. At a time the pandemic-induced economic downturn has shrunk household incomes and the absence of social security has aggravated the difficulties of the working and lower-middle classes, many such manufacturing units offer hope of a semblance of relief from poverty. They also seem to buck the post-pandemic trend of a large number of women falling out of the labour force — as revealed by the CMIE data. However, with employers playing short shrift to basic safety codes, these workplaces turn out to be not only exploitative, they also add to the hardships faced by their employees — and their dear ones. Several families, for instance, lost their sole breadwinner in last week’s fire tragedy.
Delhi’s Lt Governor Anil Baijal has ordered a magisterial investigation into the accident. The probe must, of course, fix accountability at multiple levels. But much more needs to be done. For far too long, a network of complicity has led to safety codes being flouted and building by-laws being infringed. It’s time such networks are taken apart.
