But its appeal and practicality remain contentious. And the new way of doing things comes with profound implications for the farming community.
Money is tight, and the future is scarily uncertain.
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MUMBAI — At the height of the Mumbai rush hour, boarding a train is about as easy as finding a comfortable position in a rugby scrum. On the overcrowded platform, those wearing glasses carefully tuck them away in their cases before taking a deep breath and pushing into the compact crowd of passengers until they find their balance on the footboard, their bodies leaning to the outside.
The doors never close. There aren't even doors anymore. To make commutes in these impossibly crowded compartments remotely tolerable, passengers organize and form groups of friends. Some sing, others bet on the stock market or play cards. The better-organized have set up rotation systems for the seats.
“We spend so much time together, we know each other so well, that we even organize picnics on weekends,” says Yogesh Sapkale, associate editor in chief of the magazine Money Life. With 7.5 million daily passengers, the trains in Mumbai, India’s most populous city, are the most overloaded in the world, even according to the Indian Railway Ministry.
Rail traffic has increased sixfold in the last 40 years, whereas transport capacities have merely doubled over the same period. At the same time, Mumbai’s population, now estimated at 20 million, has soared. Its density is twice that of New York, and there are no skyscrapers. It has become so complicated to build new rail lines in such a densely populated city that one of the only ways of increasing transport capacities is to extend the trains and increase their speed.
A city close to asphyxiation
For Mumbai’s residents, trains are an unavoidable means of transport. During rush hours, the only alternative would be to drive at 2.5 mph on roads that cannot always be used, especially during monsoon season. The traffic is actually so slow that young businessmen have had the idea to broadcast advertising spots through loudspeakers fixed on three-wheeled motorcycles amid the traffic jams. Walking may be quicker, but the distances are very long: The city is 75 miles long from north to south.
If Mumbai is close to asphyxiation, it is first of all because of its geography. The city is built on a peninsula and can only develop northward. But the historic areas, the city’s economic heart, are in the south, a cul-de-sac where real estate prices continue to rise. To find housing at an affordable price, the middle class has no other choice than to live in the residential complexes in the north of the city, which are poorly connected to the center.
In Mumbai, the railways are called “lifelines.” Except that 10 to 12 passengers perish every day. Some climb on the train roofs and die from electrocution. Others fall from the overcrowded compartments, and others still are run over as the cross the railroads.
Packed suburban train in Mumbai — Photo: Stefan
Despite the 20 to 25 daily accidents, the trains are always on time. They are so punctual, in fact, that a journalist broacast live for two hours on television next to an injured man lying between two rails in the middle of a station while at least 20 trains passed over him.
AJ More is head of the railway police team in charge of accidents in a zone that includes seven stations. In his small and moldy office, shelves are crumbling under piles of victim files, wrapped in white fabrics as if they were bodies. The police officer has neither a computer nor telephone, but he does have a camera to take photographs of the bodies on which no ID papers or mobile phones were found. One in three victims is incinerated or buried without having been identified. “These deceased are often rural migrants, and their families aren’t aware that their relative has disappeared,” More explains.
Train accidents on the rise
Passengers sometimes die long after their injuries. Other times, ambulances stuck in traffic arrive too late or even simply turn back. Some don’t even bother coming anymore. “Recently, an ambulance driver came to complain,” the police officer says, sighing. “Of the $12 compensation he earns for the transport of a victim, the station supervisor wanted to keep $3 as a commission.”
Samir Zaveri, who was hit by a train 24 years ago, has built a reputation as a passenger rights advocate. Thanks to his persistence and legal initiative, the Dadar station has opened a medical center where injured passengers can receive first aid. This has saved many lives. He is also fighting for better compensation for the families of victims. Right now, it amounts to $9,820. “Why do people who die in a train accident cost less than people who die in a plane crash?” he says angrily.
Meanwhile, accidents are on the rise, and stations now have their own pallbearers of sorts. In Mumbai’s central station, Shankar Naidu transports bodies to make ends meet. His mortician uniform — a red shirt blackened by dirt, far too large for his puny body — also serves as his pajamas. Naidu starts and finishes his day at the end of a platform.
When he hears from the station loudspeakers that a “carrier for an accident” is requested at the train police station, he rushes there. He earns $1.60 for every body or injured person he transports to the hospital. “Most of the time, the bodies are in a state of decomposition because the accidents go unnoticed or aren’t reported,” Naidu explains.
In short, death has become routine on railways here. “Tomorrow morning, a young employee will kiss his wife and children goodbye before setting off to work, and I will pick him up in pieces on the tracks, because he wanted to get on an overcrowded train at all costs for fear of losing half a day’s salary,” More says, disgusted. “It’s the price to pay to live in Mumbai.”
MUMBAI — At the height of the Mumbai rush hour, boarding a train is about as easy as finding a comfortable position in a rugby scrum. On the overcrowded platform, those wearing glasses carefully tuck them away in their cases before taking a deep breath and pushing into the compact crowd of passengers until they find their balance on the footboard, their bodies leaning to the outside.
The doors never close. There aren't even doors anymore. To make commutes in these impossibly crowded compartments remotely tolerable, passengers organize and form groups of friends. Some sing, others bet on the stock market or play cards. The better-organized have set up rotation systems for the seats.
“We spend so much time together, we know each other so well, that we even organize picnics on weekends,” says Yogesh Sapkale, associate editor in chief of the magazine Money Life. With 7.5 million daily passengers, the trains in Mumbai, India’s most populous city, are the most overloaded in the world, even according to the Indian Railway Ministry.
Rail traffic has increased sixfold in the last 40 years, whereas transport capacities have merely doubled over the same period. At the same time, Mumbai’s population, now estimated at 20 million, has soared. Its density is twice that of New York, and there are no skyscrapers. It has become so complicated to build new rail lines in such a densely populated city that one of the only ways of increasing transport capacities is to extend the trains and increase their speed.
A city close to asphyxiation
For Mumbai’s residents, trains are an unavoidable means of transport. During rush hours, the only alternative would be to drive at 2.5 mph on roads that cannot always be used, especially during monsoon season. The traffic is actually so slow that young businessmen have had the idea to broadcast advertising spots through loudspeakers fixed on three-wheeled motorcycles amid the traffic jams. Walking may be quicker, but the distances are very long: The city is 75 miles long from north to south.
If Mumbai is close to asphyxiation, it is first of all because of its geography. The city is built on a peninsula and can only develop northward. But the historic areas, the city’s economic heart, are in the south, a cul-de-sac where real estate prices continue to rise. To find housing at an affordable price, the middle class has no other choice than to live in the residential complexes in the north of the city, which are poorly connected to the center.
In Mumbai, the railways are called “lifelines.” Except that 10 to 12 passengers perish every day. Some climb on the train roofs and die from electrocution. Others fall from the overcrowded compartments, and others still are run over as the cross the railroads.
Packed suburban train in Mumbai — Photo: Stefan
Despite the 20 to 25 daily accidents, the trains are always on time. They are so punctual, in fact, that a journalist broacast live for two hours on television next to an injured man lying between two rails in the middle of a station while at least 20 trains passed over him.
AJ More is head of the railway police team in charge of accidents in a zone that includes seven stations. In his small and moldy office, shelves are crumbling under piles of victim files, wrapped in white fabrics as if they were bodies. The police officer has neither a computer nor telephone, but he does have a camera to take photographs of the bodies on which no ID papers or mobile phones were found. One in three victims is incinerated or buried without having been identified. “These deceased are often rural migrants, and their families aren’t aware that their relative has disappeared,” More explains.
Train accidents on the rise
Passengers sometimes die long after their injuries. Other times, ambulances stuck in traffic arrive too late or even simply turn back. Some don’t even bother coming anymore. “Recently, an ambulance driver came to complain,” the police officer says, sighing. “Of the $12 compensation he earns for the transport of a victim, the station supervisor wanted to keep $3 as a commission.”
Samir Zaveri, who was hit by a train 24 years ago, has built a reputation as a passenger rights advocate. Thanks to his persistence and legal initiative, the Dadar station has opened a medical center where injured passengers can receive first aid. This has saved many lives. He is also fighting for better compensation for the families of victims. Right now, it amounts to $9,820. “Why do people who die in a train accident cost less than people who die in a plane crash?” he says angrily.
Meanwhile, accidents are on the rise, and stations now have their own pallbearers of sorts. In Mumbai’s central station, Shankar Naidu transports bodies to make ends meet. His mortician uniform — a red shirt blackened by dirt, far too large for his puny body — also serves as his pajamas. Naidu starts and finishes his day at the end of a platform.
When he hears from the station loudspeakers that a “carrier for an accident” is requested at the train police station, he rushes there. He earns $1.60 for every body or injured person he transports to the hospital. “Most of the time, the bodies are in a state of decomposition because the accidents go unnoticed or aren’t reported,” Naidu explains.
In short, death has become routine on railways here. “Tomorrow morning, a young employee will kiss his wife and children goodbye before setting off to work, and I will pick him up in pieces on the tracks, because he wanted to get on an overcrowded train at all costs for fear of losing half a day’s salary,” More says, disgusted. “It’s the price to pay to live in Mumbai.”
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The UK government wants its farming sector to transition to a more sustainable model. But farmers fear the complex post-Brexit agricultural policy and lack of EU subsidies are threatening their livelihood.
The UK’s farming landscape has changed dramatically since Brexit. Agricultural policy has been adjusted, and EU subsidies, which funded UK farming for decades, are no more.
Before the split, those subsidies helped British farmers to the tune of nearly £3 billion a year, which for some, made up 90% of their annual income. That system is now being phased out, in a move which the UK government claims will be more environmentally sustainable.
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Central to this new approach are “environmental land management schemes”, designed to encourage farmers to produce what are known as “public goods” – things like soil health and wildlife habitats – with financial payment levels dependent on which of these goods are attained. Defra aims for 70% farmer participation by 2028, with 11,000 farmers in England already enrolled.
But its appeal and practicality remain contentious. And the new way of doing things comes with profound implications for the farming community.
Money is tight, and the future is scarily uncertain.
Our work investigates the constraints and challenges facing farmers in the UK and abroad. Recently, we explored the constraints encountered by farmers since Brexit, specifically focusing on upland farms in England. We found that the focus on environmental sustainability, though commendable, overlooks critical economic and social dimensions.
The transition threatens to marginalise traditionally minded farmers, lose cultural heritage and weaken the rural community’s social fabric. And it’s a transition which doesn’t just affect the farmers themselves. The farming and food industries are valued at over £120 billion to the British economy.
Speaking to upland farmers (who work in hilly and mountainous regions) across four English counties (Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria and Devon), we discovered that many are extremely concerned about the future of the farms they look after. Farms that for some, have been in their families for generations.
I don’t even bother with these newer schemes because I don’t understand it.
One 70-year-old farmer from Lancashire commented bluntly about the future of his 250-acre beef and sheep farm: “We’re not going to be viable.”
He added: “I might as well stop farming and diversify into holiday lets.”
Another farmer, aged 50, who keeps Herdwick sheep in the Lake District, highlighted the critical role of EU subsidies, noting that their planned removal by 2027 would severely limit their farm’s finances and their ability to pursue environmental initiatives.
She said: “With that basic payment taken out of the business, it’s really difficult. We can make about £10,000 profit, but our basic payment is more than that. So that’s going to take us into a situation where we’re not making any money.”
There were also concerns expressed about how difficult it is to understand the new farming policy in the UK. Four in ten UK farmers are aged over 65, and information laid out in the 150-page “Sustainable Farming Incentive” document can be overwhelming. Many traditional farmers do not use mobile phones, and are unfamiliar with the online world.
Farmers bring their tractors into London duringa protest organised by Save Briish Farming and Farmers for Fairness.
Cal Ford/ZUMA
One farmer told us: “In my porch I’ve got like a thousand leaflets stacked up that [Defra] just sent me to take out to people because a lot of the farmers that I’m working with are not online. They haven’t heard about a lot of this stuff.”
She added: “I went to a farm last week, which is only accessible with a 4x4. Nobody’s been there to talk to them about schemes and stuff ever.”
Another said farmer, aged 72, said: “All the form filling is too damn difficult. I don’t even bother with these newer schemes because I don’t understand it.”
And while new schemes may be complex, many of the farmers we spoke to were very clear about the risks to the future of British farming. Overall, they seemed worried that farms, skills and knowledge that have been passed down through generations would be lost during this transition to more sustainable farming.
One said: “If farming isn’t going to be supported in the way it has been in the past, we’re going to lose an awful lot of farmers who have been on farms [for generations]. Their skill set and instinct will be gone, and it’ll be enveloped by agribusiness. That’s perhaps what [the government] want.”
The future seems pretty bleak.
Another explained: “If we lose the older generation that’s a massive loss."
"What used to happen with tenancies is people would work together, like me and my son. And then one would gradually step back and the other would gradually take over. It’s a gradual process.”
Overall, we found that for the more traditional farmers we spoke to, the future seemed pretty bleak. There was also a strong sense that while the farms they operated may not be hugely profitable, or provide the strongest environmental benefits, the work they do still had social and cultural value – which risks being lost forever.
And as England navigates the complexities of post-Brexit agricultural policy, the balance between environmental goals and the preservation of traditional farming practices remains precarious. Many of the farmers we met felt that they were being pushed away from their traditional role as producers.
As one farmer put it: “If you’re taking productive land out of production for your tree planting or diversification of whatever kind, then where’s our food coming from?”
*Peter Gittins, Lecturer in Management, University of Leeds and Deema Refai, Associate Professor in Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, University of Leeds
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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