LETTER

Ever since the fi rst issue in 1966, EPW has been India’s premier journal for Exclusion of Pedestrians transport system is ill-maintained and comment on current affairs and research in social sciences. and Cyclists ill-kept, there is great inequality in access It succeeded Economic Weekly (1949-1965), to road spaces. which was launched and shepherded by Sachin Chaudhuri, his is with reference to your editorial High vehicle-density and the conse- who was also the founder-editor of EPW. entitled “Distress of ‘Automobilis- quent pollution and congestion in the As editor for thirty-fi ve years (1969-2004) T Krishna Raj ation’” (EPW, 16 January 2010). Cities in cities of Kerala have infl icted phenomenal gave EPW the reputation it now enjoys. my state of Kerala were famous for the costs upon the residents. Middle class editor many forms of non-motorised transport access to capital and income is one part of C Rammanohar Reddy (NMT) systems, like horse-pulled jadkas in the explanation for growing ownership of Deputy Editor Bernard D’Mello Thiruvananthapuram and cycle rickshaws items like luxury cars, supported by public web Editor in Kochi during the 1950s and early 1960s. policies that have led to increasing open- subhash rai NMT played an important role in other ness to global capitalism and work migra- Senior Assistant Editors parts of the country too. For instance, a tion. The emergence of the “cosmopolitan Lina Mathias aniket Alam study by PARISAR, a Pune-based NGO, re- non-resident Indian consumer” in the Bharati Bhargava ports that “Pune was once known as a city wake of globalisation of the consumption Assistant Editors of cyclists”. It goes on to tell us that while patterns of the middle class to enhance or Srinivasan ramani ashima sood there has been a declining trend in the use retain social prestige is indicative of the Editorial Staff of the cycle, amazingly about 10% of all high degree of consumerism in the state. Prabha Pillai trips is still done by cycle. Ever since the The situation of “affl uenza” has been but- jyoti shetty advent of liberalisation policies, infrastruc- tressed by bandwagon, snob and Veblen Editorial Assistants P S Leela tural facilities in the form of express high- effects that have spurred the growth of Tanya Sethi ways, fl yovers, parkways, multi-lane free- demand for motor vehicles in the state. A Editorial Consultant ways, etc, are on the increase. Vehicular compulsive logic of excess is found in the Gautam Navlakha traffi c beyond the capacity of city roads has ownership of automobiles that display “an production u raghunathan displaced pedestrians, cyclists, cart-pullers, individual’s commanding position in the s lesline corera etc, from the city space, and, in turn, society, and they are part of the kit that suneethi nair threatens the livelihood opportunities and goes with the sumptuous living, entertain- Circulation Gauraang Pradhan Manager survival networks of the urban poor and ing and travelling of those who constitute B S Sharma the lower middle class. the exclusive circles in business, fi nance Advertisement Manager In a state like Kerala, reeling under the and politics”. Kamal G Fanibanda infl uence of foreign remittances, the If public policy in India and in its con- General Manager & Publisher K Vijayakumar “vehicular explosion” has spread to the ru- stituent states continues to treat the car as editorial ral areas too. There is high spending by a mass consumption commodity and ac- [email protected] the rich and the middle classes on the tively promotes automobilisation of the Circulation [email protected] l atest models of motor vehicles backed by society, mobility would become more Advertising what you have rightly described as “sym- energy-intensive and will aggravate air [email protected] bols of luxury lifestyles” and the “competi- pollution. It is high time the government Economic and Political Weekly tive striving for social distinction”, con- devises a more cycle-and-pedestrian- 320-321, A to Z Industrial Estate Ganpatrao Kadam Marg, Lower Parel forming to Veblen’s concepts of conspicu- inclusive traffi c and transportation policy. Mumbai 400 013 ous consumption, conspicuous leisure and Phone: (022) 4063 8282 G Visakh Varma FAX: (022) 2493 4515 pecuniary emulation. Big and small vehi- Kochi cles overcrowd the narrow city and even EPW Research Foundation EPW Research Foundation, established in 1993, conducts rural roads, leading to the exclusion of research on fi nancial and macro-economic issues in India. pedestrians and cyclists from public Errata Director k kanagasabapathy spaces. This kind of a new exclusion is The sentence in the fi rst paragraph, line 5 C 212, Akurli Industrial Estate silently supported by the local govern- of Section 3 of the article “An Assessment Kandivali (East), Mumbai 400 101 Phones: (022) 2887 3038/41 ments which take little care to promote of Growth Forecasts for India” by Kajal Fax: (022) 2887 3038 cost and energy-saving NMT, at least in Lahiri and Prakash Loungani (16 January [email protected] city centres, and fail to maintain better 2010) should have read: Printed by K Vijayakumar at Modern Arts and Industries, amenities like footpaths, subways, cycle- “When the forecaster makes her fi rst 151, A-Z Industrial Estate, Ganpatrao Kadam Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai-400 013 and tracks, etc. In Kerala, there is an expanded forecast for growth for a given fi scal year published by him on behalf of Sameeksha Trust demand for bigger motor cars and vans, (which, as noted, in this data set is made from 320-321, A-Z Industrial Estate, Ganpatrao Kadam Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai-400 013. though they cater, as you have stated, only 24 months before the end of the fi scal Editor: C Rammanohar Reddy. to the travel requirements of a minority of year), she presumably does so using all the The subscription rates for EPW are on the last page of the journal. the city’s residents. Since the public relevant information”.

4 january 30, 2010 vol xlv no 5 EPW Economic & Political Weekly LETTER

On Moti Nandi

he eminent Bengali sports journalist Tand writer, Moti Nandi passed away on 3 January at the age of 79. He changed

74 january 16, 2010 vol xlv no 4 EPW Economic & Political Weekly