Political Geographies of Human Accidents and Trauma Care in Mumbai's Commuter Railways
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sheffield
Department Name: Urban Studies and Planning
Abstract
Traffic-related trauma is now a leading cause of preventable death (WHO, 2009-2018), especially in low and middle income countries (LMICs), and is gaining increasing attention in policy, planning and scientific research. Scholars working on both prevention and access to trauma care in the global south have underscored persisting challenges in the form of multiplication of legislation, lack of co-ordination between planning agencies, fragmentation of statistics and severe resource deficits (Bhalla et al., 2017, 2019; Mohan, 1984; Sanghavi et al., 2009). While existing scholarship concentrates mostly on road-fatality, this study contributes insights on railway-trauma in the context of Mumbai, where hundreds of lives are lost or incapacitated yearly in track-related incidents across the city. Nearly a third of the dead remain untraced.
The research combines archival data and legal and policy analysis with a multi-sited ethnography of accident-work with a range of people - emergency response, medical care, investigation and case closure, and adjudication for compensation - as well as those involved in health and death care activism. Through this multi-focus on law, policy and practice, the research develops a nuanced, historical and systematic account of state response to human accidents in Mumbai. The findings offer extremely valuable insights for efforts in reducing the number of deaths and injuries in railways in India, addressing the needs and concerns of frontline agents in performing their roles in trauma and death care, and in securing appropriate support and justice for victims and their families.
A key finding of the dissertation is how 'accident-care' is produced as 'accident-al care', and the effects it has on both accident-victims and accident-attendants. On the one hand, human accidents are marginalised through abstracted systems of legal classification and jurisdictional fragmentation between the railway and the city. Legal classification of human accidents as outcomes of individual deviant behaviour within railway administrative law serves to depoliticise accidental injury and absolve the railways of accountability. It also severely undermines the scope of justice for victims and family. At the same time, the codification of accidents as medico-legal cases within criminal law expands the role of police and other state agents in their after-life. However, within the broader political economy of trauma care in India with its absence of a robust pre-hospital system, the police start to become less of the keen investigators and more of victim-carers in this encounter with the accident, what I call the 'accident-al' accomplishment of accident-care. Considering that a large number of accidents result in death and several of the dead remain unidentified/untraced, the involvement of the police is extended further into the domain of social management of death too. During the fellowship, I will consolidate my existing research on this topic, making its findings available to academics as well as policy makers, practictioners, and the wider public.
This will be achieved via written pieces for both academic and non-academic audiences in the form of journal papers, blog articles and presentations at conferences; and development of a manuscript project proposal. In addition, two stakeholder engagement events will be held to share my research findings and address the key opportunities and challenges facing institutional actors who are at the front lines of public health and deathcare provisioning in India.This will also promote the value of knowledge exchange. A period will also be spent back out in the field to undertake new research in institutional archives. Additionally, the fellowship will contribute to career and personal development through offer of advanced skills and methods training, mentorship for developing future research grant proposals, as well as opportunity to build wider networks and collaboration.
The research combines archival data and legal and policy analysis with a multi-sited ethnography of accident-work with a range of people - emergency response, medical care, investigation and case closure, and adjudication for compensation - as well as those involved in health and death care activism. Through this multi-focus on law, policy and practice, the research develops a nuanced, historical and systematic account of state response to human accidents in Mumbai. The findings offer extremely valuable insights for efforts in reducing the number of deaths and injuries in railways in India, addressing the needs and concerns of frontline agents in performing their roles in trauma and death care, and in securing appropriate support and justice for victims and their families.
A key finding of the dissertation is how 'accident-care' is produced as 'accident-al care', and the effects it has on both accident-victims and accident-attendants. On the one hand, human accidents are marginalised through abstracted systems of legal classification and jurisdictional fragmentation between the railway and the city. Legal classification of human accidents as outcomes of individual deviant behaviour within railway administrative law serves to depoliticise accidental injury and absolve the railways of accountability. It also severely undermines the scope of justice for victims and family. At the same time, the codification of accidents as medico-legal cases within criminal law expands the role of police and other state agents in their after-life. However, within the broader political economy of trauma care in India with its absence of a robust pre-hospital system, the police start to become less of the keen investigators and more of victim-carers in this encounter with the accident, what I call the 'accident-al' accomplishment of accident-care. Considering that a large number of accidents result in death and several of the dead remain unidentified/untraced, the involvement of the police is extended further into the domain of social management of death too. During the fellowship, I will consolidate my existing research on this topic, making its findings available to academics as well as policy makers, practictioners, and the wider public.
This will be achieved via written pieces for both academic and non-academic audiences in the form of journal papers, blog articles and presentations at conferences; and development of a manuscript project proposal. In addition, two stakeholder engagement events will be held to share my research findings and address the key opportunities and challenges facing institutional actors who are at the front lines of public health and deathcare provisioning in India.This will also promote the value of knowledge exchange. A period will also be spent back out in the field to undertake new research in institutional archives. Additionally, the fellowship will contribute to career and personal development through offer of advanced skills and methods training, mentorship for developing future research grant proposals, as well as opportunity to build wider networks and collaboration.
Organisations
| Description | There are three key areas that encapsulate the key findings of this project: 1) Geographies of Trauma: Through knowledge exchange with practitioners and research agencies engaged in trauma care and road safety in India, I have consolidated insights ion the persistent challenges in bridging issues of traffic safety and trauma care needs in India. These dialogues have firmed the grounds for exploring a future collaborative grant proposal to investigate and address the complex interplay between infrastructural development and public health concerns related to road safety and trauma care in India. Leveraging networks with trauma practitioners, road safety advocates and NGOs, University of Chicago and IIT Delhi. 2) Railways: In my research, I identify the railway as a foundational locus that fosters collective experiences provides avenues for public care and resilience. Throughout the ESRC PDRF and moving forward, my focus remains on employing critical methodologies to examine contemporary railways, addressing their relative neglect within discussions of infrastructural politics, socio-spatial justice, and substantive citizenship. This involves my own contributions, including legal analysis and ethnographic studies of railways, as evidenced by academic papers produced under the auspices of the award. Additionally, I remain committed to cultivating new networks comprising Early Career Researchers (ECRs) and other scholars in railway studies through workshops and collaborative working groups. Furthermore, I am involved in a collaborative grant proposal aimed at promoting a distinctly humanities-oriented approach to studying late 20th-century railways, leveraging my extended connections at Abo Akademy Finland. This initiative, which was shortlisted for the final stages of the Academy of Finland Project Grants in 2023, ultimately secured funding from the H. Donner Foundation in 2024. Together, these achievements underscore the importance of interdisciplinary railway studies aligned with socially just and sustainable mobility futures., uniquely facilitates engagement with political and geographical peripheries, and tangibly 3)Interrogating the development-policing-welfare nexus: southern perspectives: A particularly insightful finding of my ESRC PDRF was the complex intertwining of police-work with care-work in trauma geographies, steering a further interest in how welfare and policing intersect in different realms of public service and social policy in South Asia, and the critical implications thereof. While earlier work focused on everyday risk governance, I have finalised a grant proposal for the ESRC New Investigator (NI) scheme that expands contextual and conceptual boundaries of the policing-governance-welfare nexus through the lens of voluntary auxiliary police work in India deploying an interdisciplinary approach spanning critical security studies, sociology of labour and international development. The project will offer valuable perspectives for democratic crisis governance and police practices worldwide, especially amid emerging risks such as those posed by public health crises and climate change. |
| Exploitation Route | The award has successfully produced outcomes of use and value to a wide range of users. Training sessions and materials tailored specifically for the Indian Railway Protection Force to enhance their soft skills will play a pivotal role in enhancing their public image and the quality of their interactions with the public, thereby transforming the overall public experience. ECRs in two pivotal domains-Interdisciplinary Railway Studies and the Sociology of Injury-will find substantial value in the networking and peer support avenues facilitated by this award. The finalised paper contributes theoretically and empirically to current debates in plural policing by expanding it's current focus from the different ways in which the state's dominant role in policing is being diluted to a cognition of the ways in which the state is likely to remain critical to moral accountability for lives at risk through the police. Lived experiences and needs of frontline agents continue to be foregrounded through the new grant proposal on civilian volunteer police in India that was meticulously developed through dialogues with state/non-state practitioners and HG and CD community support groups and focuses especially on their demands for recognition and dignified work amidst their expanding roles in public health and climate emergencies. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Healthcare Government Democracy and Justice Transport |
| Description | The purpose of the PDRF was twofold: to enhance both my academic and non-academic contributions, and to amplify the societal impact of my research while nurturing career development. Through the PDRF, I have been able to forge a robust emerging research profile as an interdisciplinary scholar operating at the nexus of embodied mobility, risk governance, and care geographies. This opportunity has facilitated the consolidation of my expertise and provided a platform for me to make meaningful contributions to both scholarly discourse and societal advancement. I availed of exceptional mentorship and an array of excellent training opportunities offered by NCRM and TUOS in leadership (daring to dare: a training programme for young women in academia); practical skills (NVIVO, Using administrative data for research); and professional development (publishing monographs, writing grant applications, Introduction to Impact). One significant non-academic impact of my work has been the spotlighting of the lived experiences and requirements of frontline agents engaged in critical public service delivery, particularly focusing on the lower-ranking police personnel. This emphasis extends to their response to the complex demands and challenges posed by mobility issues, which aligns with my ongoing research on trauma care for individuals affected by accidents on Indian Railways. Furthermore, my research has shed light on the varied emergency situations faced by these frontline personnel, including those related to public health crises and climate change(for example through the personal and institutional narratives surrounding Covid-19 policing efforts and the management of urban risks such as flooding in Mumbai). By capturing and amplifying these experiences, my work contributes to a deeper understanding of the realities faced by those on the front lines of public service, informing both policy and practice in these critical areas. This impact was advanced in the form of stakeholder engagements with different Indian railway police agencies through training and learning-sharing workshops. The first on soft skills training for constabulary was successfully implemented with the Railway Protection Force. However a second planned stakeholder engagement with a different railway police force, scheduled for February 2024, had to be cancelled owing to a shortage of research funds. This shortfall arose because TUOS allocated GBP 2000 from my research budget to cover my salary increment, which was implemented in response to institution-wide adjustments. The workshop was planned to capture key insights on current status of human accidents and trauma care in Indian railways (updating my data from doctoral fieldwork), reflections on what measures/strategies have worked/ failed and key challenges at hand. A secondary focus was to be on railways and covid response. Additionally, the anticipated policy brief, intended to derive from the workshop findings, could not be developed as planned. The lived experiences of frontline police and trauma care personnel will also find voice through the monograph based on my doctoral research, for which I have successfully prepared a book proposal during the award period (submitted for consideration for the New India Foundation Book Fellowship award (unsuccessful); and book workshop at the Madison South Asia Conference 2023 (waitlisted); recrafted for submission to Cambridge University Press). Another significant impact outcome has been the development of a new grant proposal focusing on voluntary auxiliary police work in South Asia, with a particular emphasis on India and the pressing need for recognition and dignified work among these personnel. This proposal has been informed by initial insights gleaned from fieldwork conducted as part of new research under the PDRF, and has been fortified by robust collaboration with academic partners, state agencies, and community support groups focused on human geography (HG) and community development (CD). The project is poised to resonate with policymakers in civil service and state departments, as well as with community development groups and advocates for police reform. It offers valuable perspectives for democratic crisis governance and police practices worldwide, particularly in light of emerging risks such as those posed by public health crises and climate change. Moreover, the process of developing this grant proposal has facilitated the cultivation of interdisciplinary strengths and networks, with mentorship arrangements spanning different disciplinary departments, such as the Department of Sociological Studies at TUOS. Additionally, it has played a pivotal role in honing key career development skills essential for navigating complex research endeavors and interdisciplinary collaborations. Academic contributions were strengthened through the papers finalised during the fellowship period. The first contributes to substantive debates in plural police through a focus on questions of moral accountability in risk situations and southern/infrastructural contextualisation. The second paper on compensation justice for human accident victims utilises hitherto unexplored longitudinal data on legislation and judicial outcomes for human accident compensation availed from the Indian legal repository Manupatra. Academic audiences were reached through delivery of invited talks internally (at USP seminar series) and externally (School of Geography and Environment, University of Oxford) and conference presentations (at BASAS 2023 and AAG 2023). Interdisciplinary dialogue across and beyond the social sciences were advanced in two further domains: a) railway studies,; b) embodied geographies of injury and trauma. An ECR academic workshop on interdisciplinary railway studies, initially scheduled to be conducted in a hybrid format at USP, TUOS, had to be deferred due to the aforementioned resource constraints. Consequently, the workshop has been reimagined as a panel for the upcoming BASAS conference in 2024, with a refined focus on South Asia. The panel is co-convened with a colleague from the Department of Sociological Studies at Sheffield, demonstrating the networking and peer relationships built at TUOS during the PDRF. My commitment to collaborative endeavours is further evidenced by the active involvement in sustained peer and partner networks facilitated by the award. Notably, I am an active participant in a research club comprising medical practitioners in India. Within this forum, I have presented my research on railway trauma and actively engaged with representatives from traffic safety NGOs and practitioners. This praxis aims to bridge the gap between medical expertise and planning/development practices in southern contexts, with a focus on highlighting urban risks and their unequal distribution. By advocating for improved public provisioning, we seek to prioritize access to health and secure environments for all. Additionally, I have taken the initiative to establish a multidisciplinary reading and support group, tentatively titled 'Injury,' catering to Early Career Researchers (ECRs) grappling with ethical and methodological challenges in researching injury and injuriousness. This initiative emerged from networking opportunities facilitated by conference participation under the award, reflecting my commitment to fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange within academic circles. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Healthcare,Government, Democracy and Justice,Transport |
| Impact Types | Societal Policy & public services |
| Description | Training for Indian Railway Police Personnel |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or improved professional practice |
| Impact | Training sessions and materials tailored specifically for the Indian Railway Protection Force to enhance their soft skills will play a pivotal role in enhancing their public image and the quality of their interactions with the public, thereby transforming the overall public experience. The training received high praise from the lower-ranking constabulary, as evidenced by their feedback and informal interactions that followed post the main event. They viewed it as a much-needed platform to share their daily experiences and challenges as security providers in a bustling public mobility environment. The emphasis on soft skills was particularly lauded, as it addressed both the necessities for effective public interaction and the personal and professional growth of the participants. Notably, the Assistant Commissioner of Railway Police showed keen interest and requested details about any forthcoming training sessions. |
| Description | Festival of Social Sciences |
| Amount | £250 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Sheffield |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2023 |
| End | 11/2023 |
| Description | Engagement with medical practitioners |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In August 2023, I shared some aspects of my work on civic advocacy for human accident care in Mumbai's railways with a research club run by trauma doctors, medical researchers and other practitoners. The talk was titled 'Owning Railway Trauma' and I shared the platform with activist Dr Sarosh Mehta who had played a pioneering role in the 1990's in public interest litigation against Indian Railways for improved trauma care for human accident victims under the Right to Life. The talk was attended by more than 50 participants in hybrid formats, comprising of a mix of Indian and international professional medical practitioners. They shared that it was hugely insightful to learn of the life and politics of trauma as it was shaped outside their A&E. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |