Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi: Why it is so difficult to walk in Indian cities
Cherylann Mollan
BBC News, Mumbai
In India, if you ask a pedestrian how many obstacles they've encountered on a footpath, they may not be able to count them - but they'll certainly tell you that most footpaths are in poor condition.
This is what Arun Pai says he learnt when he started asking people about their experience walking on the streets of his city, Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), in southern India.
This month he set up a "fun challenge" - called the 'world's longest footpath run' - which invited people to walk or jog on an 11km (8 miles) stretch of footpath and make a note of all the obstacles they encountered, like hawkers, garbage or broken slabs of concrete. Next, they were asked to rate the footpath on a scale of one to five.
"When you have specifics, it gets easier to ask the authorities to take action. Instead of telling your local politician "the footpaths are bad", you can ask him or her "to fix specific spots on a street," Mr Pai says.
Mr Pai, who is the founder of Bangalore Walks, a non-profit that promotes walking, is among several citizen activists who are pushing to make the country's roads more pedestrian-friendly.
In India's capital, a tour company called Delhi by Cycle has been advocating for making the city more cycle-friendly and walkable. These walking-enthusiasts are holding awareness walks, building walking apps and lobbying with politicians to make a change.
Even in India's biggest cities, proper footpaths are few and far between and they are often overrun by hawkers and shops, parked vehicles and even cattle. In some places, they double up as homes for the poor.
Even footpaths that exist are often not built to standard or properly maintained. Navigating roads on foot through crowds and traffic can be a nightmare.