Western Railway reeling from broken window syndrome

Western Railway reeling from broken window syndrome

SC Mitra deputy financial adviser, Western Railway In a 1982 Atlantic Monthly article titled Broken Windows, James Q. Wilson and George Kelling argued that disorder in a community, if left uncorrected, undercuts residents’ own efforts to maintain their homes and neighbourhoods and control unruly behaviour. “If a window in a building is broken and left unrepaired,” they wrote, “all the rest of the windows will soon be broken... One unrepaired window is a signal that no one cares, so breaking more windows costs nothing... Untended property becomes fair game for people out for fun or plunder.” The term ‘Broken Window Syndrome’ came out of an experiment conducted in Palo Alto, in which the researchers put a car on the street. At first, it was in good shape, nothing happened to it. But after they broke a window and later removed a tire, vandals soon swarmed around the vehicle and dismantled it. The above (examples) seem very relevant to a social problem of unmatched severity faced by Mumbai Division of Western Railway in locals and on platforms and tracks — filth and squalor and unbearable stench, the kind of which make our heads hang in shame! Tolerance of these activities gives a sense of security to future criminals that ‘All is Well’ for them to cross the Rubicon and do something wrong, and that they would not be caught or pursued, much less prosecuted. Thus, we find stations and railway premises becoming a hotbed of filth and squalor, and hunting ground for junkies and drug peddlers. The moment we decide enough is enough and start prosecuting each and every minor infraction, we are bound to see positive result.