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One does not have to be a specialist in safety to know that large gaps in the balcony grills or the staircase railings are extremely dangerous because small children can easily slip through them. Yet, builders around the country ignore this simple, yet crucial, factor in all those multi-storied housing complexes that they build. And the civic authorities overlook this big gap in safety and the building standards when they give completion and occupancy certificates to these buildings. The result of such negligence can be seen in the large number toddlers who have died in tragic circumstances in the last couple of years in different parts of the country. The latest victim is
18-month old Alima, who slipped through the gap between the vertical
railings of the staircase outside her fourth floor apartment in East
Delhi last month. Playing ‘hide and seek’ with her mother, she
rushed out of the house and tried to hide behind a potted plant kept
next to the railing and even as her mother sensed the danger and ran
to catch her, she had fallen to her death.
Alima, in fact, joins a long list of toddlers whose lives have been abruptly and tragically cut short because of unsafe balconies, terraces and staircases in housing complexes. On March 24, just two days prior to Alima’s death, another child –five-year old Saba Shaikh- had met a similar fate. The child had fallen through the gaping holes in the vertical balcony grills on the seventh floor of his flat in Worli, Mumbai. There were many such unfortunate incidents in 2011. In October, for example, Akash fell down through the grills of a second floor balcony, where he was playing with other children. Spotting a vegetable vendor, his mother, who was with him, went downstairs and Akash, in his anxiety to see his mother, bent towards the gap in the grills and fell to his death. Ten-year old Mohit Kumar too plunged to his death through the gaps in the balcony railings of his third floor flat in Mico layout the same month. While in September, two-year-old Vandana dropped to death from the second floor balcony of her house in Vijayanagar, in August, two-year-old Mohammad Noor fell from the third floor. In April, there were two deaths — while a toddler, Nayana Manoj, slipped through the railings of the balcony on the second floor, Shalini, a 16-year-old girl fell from the terrace of a two-storey building where she was playing with her friends. All these tragedies happened in Bangalore. In fact, Bangalore reported about nine such deaths in 2011 and four in 2010. In February 2011, two-year-old Kalyani met a tragic end, again because of the large gap in the balcony balustrade on the second floor of her flat in Nagpur. As per the National Building code, 2005, the height of the handrail in the staircase should not be less than 90 cm (a little more than 2 feet, 11 inches) and if balusters are provided, no gap in the balusters should be more than 10 cm wide. Similarly, the balcony walls or guard rails should not be less than 1.20 metres ( approx 3 feet 11 inches) high and such guard rails should be firmly fixed on the walls. Civic authorities in different cities have adopted this either in toto or with modifications. We, as citizens should insist on the adoption of best practices and should not allow any dilutions in the standards. Besides ensuring that the gap between the balcony grills is no more than 10 cm, we should also ensure that there are no horizontal strips or grills that prompt a child to use it as a step ladder to climb up the balcony wall. It is equally important to ensure that there is no gap between the balcony floor and the first grill, as otherwise, that could lead to a child falling through the gap. Similarly, builders do not provide grills to the windows of upper floors. This is again a dangerous practice. As consumers, citizens, we need to pay utmost attention to these safety aspects. Before taking possession of your flat/house, check the balcony, staircase, terrace and windows and make sure that the house is safe in all respects. Measure the gaps between the grills, the height of the balcony wall and make sure that it conforms to safety standards. If you think that the standards adopted by the civic authorities are inadequate, form an association and pressure them to upgrade them. Demand accountability from builders and civic authorities and do not accept unsafe houses.
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