#dnaEdit: What lies behind India's urban rage?

The recent killing of a senior police inspector by an assistant sub-inspector using his service revolver and then turning the gun on himself in a Mumbai police station merits serious introspection. The regular incidents of road rage, parking brawls, and disputes over water and power theft, reveal the massive challenges our cities are currently grappling with. The stress emanating from high-pressure workplaces, long daily commutes on roads choked by traffic, vehicular smoke and dust and household tensions — alarmingly — are routinising violence in our daily lives. In this particular case, what allegedly irked ASI Dilip Shirke was his superior’s attempt to deny Shirke leave of absence and the threat that his salary could be docked. Jolted by the fratricide, Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria has ordered a compulsory mental health checkup of all police officers. It is also reported that a questionnaire to ascertain the minute details of the cops’ work atmosphere and personal life is being prepared. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis too has pitched in by requesting Maria to be more liberal with granting leave. 

There is also a larger context defining the violence. Police forces across the country, including paramilitary forces like the CRPF and the BSF, are overburdened with work. Mumbai police personnel reportedly put in 12-hour shifts daily besides often having to work also on their weekly offs because of shortage of personnel. Even worse is the condition of paramilitary personnel deputed on anti-Maoist operations or those keeping perpetual vigil in hostile border areas. Statistics reveal that 370 CRPF personnel have committed suicide between 2012 and 2014 while another 643 have suffered heart attacks against the 323 men killed by Maoists. Over the last two years, the CRPF has suffered heavy attrition with over 10,000 personnel prematurely exiting the three-lakh strong force. But occupational stress is also a civilian and an urban phenomenon. With population pressures escalating, public spaces in cities like roads are becoming increasingly contested. But when these spaces are transformed into sites of violence, authorities should realise they have a major problem on hand. Our cities — attuned as they are to unauthorised constructions, encroachments, corruption, and frenetic competition for jobs and aspiration for socio-economic mobility — have spawned a category of people, across economic classes, who have little or no respect for the law.

Such people are quick to channelise their anger over what they perceive as violation of their personal sovereignty and property, into acts of violence. Delhi, for instance, has reported three horrifying instances of road rage in the past three days. Just last month, a man was killed in a road rage incident in the communally sensitive Old Delhi area. The question confronting us is: how do we find outlets for stress and rage? By now we are familiar with yoga, meditation and other relaxation techniques marketed as activities to alleviate urban lifestyle stress. But most working people in cities have no time to indulge in such therapeutic activities. In this fraught situation, it is public policy that has to evolve in ways that can make cities happier spaces. Ensuring better working conditions, overtime pay, efficient public transportation, well-designed roads, empowering town-planners, reducing corruption in municipal services, and professionalising the police force can do volumes for improving the quality of life in cities. Unfortunately, public policy in India has tended to develop in silos, excluding the critical links that feed into each other. Issues like work pressure, domestic violence, substance abuse, mental and physical health issues, road rage, traffic congestion, crime, inadequate housing, power outages, and pollution, are woven together. An entrenched and compromised system will no doubt make the transformation of cities difficult. But it is indeed time to swallow the bitter pill.