Hostile civic infra keeps people away from public spaces

OU monthly pass for walkers, bus shelter benches with spikes are a few examples

Hundreds of morning walkers and joggers used to pound the pavement lining the road of Osmania University. Now, about 800-1,000 walkers show their passes and enter the leafy avenue of the university established by Nizam Osman Ali Khan in the 1930s.

“There used to be more walkers and joggers but the number has come down. The entry pass is voluntary, we are not sending away anyone who doesn’t have a pass,” says an OU official.

But walkers have to get past the security guards posted near the entrance with a signboard about registration. The ₹200 monthly pass is just one more example of pushing out citizens from public spaces. “The Tank Bund, even after 400 years, remains the only open, egalitarian, and equitable public space,” says architect Shankar Narayan when asked about hostile public spaces.