Swing crashes, 5-year-old Delhi girl killed

NEW DELHI: A five-year-old child died in a north corporation park in New Moti Nagar on Thursday afternoon when a swing, about which residents had complained earlier, collapsed on her. According to an eyewitness, the girl, Reena, was on the swing when it came down and the iron bar on top landed on her. She was rushed to Acharyashree Bhikshu Hospital where she was declared brought dead.Residents said they had complained several times about the broken swings and slides to the local councillor but to no avail.
Sujeeta, who was present in the park on Thursday, is an eyewitness to the incident. “Reena had gone to the park after returning from school around noon. The swings were damaged but the kids would somehow fix them on their own and play. Barely did she sit on the swing that it came down and the iron bar fell on her.”
No police complaint has been made yet, and by Friday morning the swings had been removed from the park. Interestingly, the mother works as a domestic help at the area councillor, Surinder Kaur’s residence. “Whatever happened is unfortunate but it was a mishap. Nobody is responsible for it and we don't want to go to the police,” said the father, Rajbir, a rickshaw-puller. The couple has earlier lost four children due to natural causes. “There is something wrong with me and my wife. All our kids died after some months but Reena survived for five years. She would be all the time under someone’s watch and I used to drop her to school fearing a road accident,” he said. The family of three lives at Kaur’s residence.
Commissioner Praveen Gupta has suspended three officials – Nanak Chand, deputy director, horticulture; Harbir Singh, assistant director (horticulture); and Bhagwati Prasad, mali or gardener, and ordered an inquiry. But the police claims it’s an accident and no case of negligence against the corporation is made out. “Despite the family’s resistance, we got a post-mortem done at Acharyashree Bhikshu Hospital and the preliminary investigation report suggests death due to injury on head and chest. The body was handed over to the family after the post-mortem,” said a senior police officer. Why an unnatural death – where negligence is quite obvious – is not being investigated is anybody’s guess.
The residents that TOI spoke to said the swings were broken and they had been regularly complaining to the area councillor. “My kids too come here to play. It could've been anyone's child. No safety measures are taken and the kids are exposed to danger. Removing the swings isn’t a solution," said Gurmeeta Kaur, a resident.
Another resident said that in the past minor incidents have happened with the iron bar getting damaged, chains going missing and the wooden planks breaking. “We residents got the swings fixed early this year from our own money. We spent on welding but the councillor has done nothing about this,” said KS Joshi, a resident.
Councillor Surinder Kaur, however, claimed that the swings had been repaired on November 27 and the actual reason for death is still not known. “Her mother works at my place and Reena was like my own daughter. But we had got the swings repaired two weeks back. There is no negligence on the corporation’s part and the Opposition is trying to rake up the issue to gain political mileage. There is still no clarity about how the kid died,” she said. She blamed repeated use of the swings by adults for its condition.
“RWAs are requested to complain if they notice any swing or slide broken or looking dangerous. An inspection at all parks and schools has been ordered,” said commissioner Gupta.

On the face of it, this appears to be a case of negligence on the part of the municipal authorities leading to the death of a young child. There must be an immediate and credible inquiry to establish whether this was indeed the case. If the suspicion is found to be true, the family of the child must be given a compensation of at least Rs 10 lakh by the civic body. While this can obviously not make good their loss, it will establish the principle that municipal bodies are accountable for their acts of omission too. However, if only the institution pays, it will not serve as a lesson to individual officials. Hence individual culpability for the negligence must be established and penalised, perhaps by making the person concerned pay a part of the compensation.