Few sights are more ordinary in an Indian city than a pedestrian being pushed off a footpath and onto the road. A mother, holding a school bag in one hand and a child in the other, walks around a parked car. An elderly man tests a broken footpath before stepping down onto the road. A wheelchair user gives up before the journey has even begun. A vendor, debris, an open drain, a two-wheeler, and a signboard together form what is still, with bureaucratic optimism, called a pavement. The citizen is then forced to walk on a road designed as though only vehicles possess rights.
In June 2026, the Supreme Court of India gave constitutional language to this daily indignity, in Maniyar Iliyaz @ Shaik Riyaz vs P. Ayyappan (2026). It held that walking on demarcated footpaths is a fundamental constitutional right, protected under Article 19(1)(d) and Article 21 of the Constitution. It observed that pedestrians have a right to safe footpaths and footways, and directed States and Union Territories to frame policies and guidelines for their provision and maintenance. This is not a minor municipal instruction. It is a public health intervention, a road safety measure, and a democratic test of whether Indian cities are built for people or merely for machines.
The timing could not be more urgent. India is becoming less active precisely when it needs movement the most. Health risk factors and diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, fatty liver disease, and obesity are rising rapidly, as reported by every newly available population health dataset.
Walking and increased physical activity are among the low- and no-cost interventions that can halt and reverse this rise in metabolic diseases. Yet, the World Health Organization (WHO)’s India Physical Activity Profile 2024 estimates that 49.4% of Indian adults do not meet the recommended levels of physical activity; among women, the figure is 57.2%. Among children and adolescents aged 11 to 17 years, it is 74%. WHO recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity each week for adults. For most citizens, this does not mean gym memberships or elite fitness routines. It means having the ability to walk safely to a bus stop, school, market, clinic, metro station, or park.
These are not failures of willpower alone; rather, they are exacerbated by the built environment. A city that makes walking difficult quietly prescribes sedentary living. Footpaths, therefore, are not decorative strips of cement added after roads have been designed. They are preventive medicine laid in stone. A usable pavement allows children to walk to school, office-goers to use public transport, older adults to remain mobile, and women to move safely. Walking improves blood pressure, insulin sensitivity, weight control, mood, sleep, and joint function. It is the simplest health habit available to the largest number of citizens. Yet, we in India have made it difficult and dangerous. Many Indians would prefer to use cars and scooters less if cities offered safe, continuous, shaded footpaths.
The road safety argument is equally compelling. The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (Transport Research Wing) ‘Road Accidents in India 2024’ report found that two-wheeler riders and pedestrians together accounted for nearly 67% of road fatalities, with 1.28 lakh deaths among these vulnerable groups. The National Crime Records Bureau’s 2024 data place the number at more than 1.1 lakh and the share at at least 60%. The exact totals differ across official sources, but the message is unambiguous: pedestrians and two-wheeler riders remain India’s most vulnerable road users. Every time a footpath disappears, the road becomes a contest between flesh and metal.
The solution cannot be episodic anti-encroachment drives, in which a few carts and cars are removed before the same disorder returns the following week. Nor can it be a punitive war on street vendors, who are workers with legal protections and legitimate economic claims. The answer lies in planned allocation: footpaths for walking, vending zones for vendors, parking spaces for vehicles, utility corridors for public infrastructure, and meaningful penalties for violations. A humane city organises the street so that livelihoods and mobility can coexist without endangering lives.
Citizens, too, have a role, though not the only one. First, walk deliberately: begin with 10 to 15 minutes after two major meals, or build towards 30 minutes at a fixed time each day. Second, convert short errands into walking errands; distances under one kilometre should not automatically require a scooter or car. Third, combine walking with public transport by using the metro, bus, or shared mobility for part of the commute. Fourth, make walking social: families, resident welfare associations, and workplaces can create walking groups and car-free morning routines. Fifth, reclaim walking as a health check. If breathlessness, knee pain, fear of falling, or unsafe streets prevent walking, treat that as a signal to seek medical advice, improve strength, or demand civic correction. Most importantly, the recent Supreme Court decision has given citizens and resident welfare associations an opportunity to demand their right to walk on encroachment-free footpaths.
Yet, citizens cannot easily walk their way out of poor urban planning. Civic bodies and governments must act with seriousness. Every road project should include continuous, shaded, well-lit, and barrier-free footpaths, along with safe crossings. Footpaths must be wide enough for two people or a wheelchair, with ramps and clear passageways near bus stops. Encroachment control should be continuous, transparent, and fair. Parking on footpaths must invite stringent action, with penalties that change behaviour. Street design should prioritise schools, hospitals, bus stops, markets, and metro stations, where pedestrian volumes are high. Tree cover, benches, public toilets, and lighting are not embellishments; they determine whether women, children, persons with disabilities, and older people can walk.
India also needs a national active-mobility mission linking urban development, transport, health, and education. Cities and urban planning should be assessed not by the length of flyovers built, but by the number of safe walking kilometres created. Municipal commissioners should publish ward-level footpath maps and annual audits of encroachment-free footpaths. School zones should have traffic calming measures and protected crossings. Employers should encourage active commuting. Doctors should prescribe walking advice to nudge behaviour, but governments must provide the pavements on which those prescriptions can be followed.
The Supreme Court has moved the footpath from the margins of municipal housekeeping to the centre of constitutional rights. The next task is to move it from judgment to habit, budget, design, and enforcement. A country battling diabetes, hypertension, obesity, stress, and road deaths cannot treat walking as an afterthought. India does not merely need more roads; it needs more rights of way for ordinary citizens. The footpath is where public health, dignity, and democracy meet. We need to take our cities back from cars. We need to rebuild our cities for people. The proportion of encroachment-free footpaths should become a barometer of whether elected governments value citizens’ fundamental rights in every ward and on every major road.
Dr. Chandrakant Lahariya is a practising specialist in ‘preventive and cardiometabolic medicine’ with nearly 18 years of work experience with the World Health Organization and the United Nations System
Published - July 21, 2026 12:16 am IST