How dirty walls lead to vandalism

Ive always been a student of decay I find it compelling that everything goes from bad to worse unless we do something specific to make it go towards better and bestYour body for example starts deteriorating from the instant you step out of a shower Pretty soon you have to bathe again just to get it back to where it was Nails grow hair gets shaggy familiarity breeds contempt and uneaten bananas go black and squishyIn physics its called entropy the gradual decline into disorder Im illuminated enough to argue with myself that flowers can grow out of dunghills and that the sun always emerges from behind dark clouds Living in a city whose very fabric is woven through with planned neglect and disorder I have inevitably become obsessed with well how things crumble and go downhill and make our daily lives suck and you suspect the BMC is right behind itExhibit A today is Andheri Railway Station rickety and untidy before modernisation and renovation began in 2013 and wonder of wonders even more devastated after being modernised I have watched the new supposedly sleek and thoroughly modern Andheri Station rise from the debris of the old oneFor years all I saw was debris inconvenience and interminable construction Platforms were broken up pits dug to house jungles of cables and there was dust everywhere It definitely was entropy in full swing I told myself that flowers can grow out of dunghills and waitedAnd one day the dunghill produced a flower The new Andheri Stations vast hangarlike space with natural light streaming in from high above and ticketing windows at the far end made it feel almost like an airport I excitedly messaged my friends that Andheri was now as good as any railway station in the worldBut just a week later I noticed the decay paan stains nonfunctioning escalators and the litter From then it just got worse A 2015 photo shows the far wall with ticket windows clean and unblemished The same photo taken this year shows a civic wreck covered with peeling posters as well as exposed cement and destroyed paint where someone had tried to scrape away older posters A disastrous peacock someones idea of an ethnic mural crawls under windows and behind tacky bulletin boards among ads for maths tutors insurance schemes and job vacancies Pointless wires hang out of hammered holes in the wall and everything is unkempt including the unshaven scruffy and impatient counter clerksLets skip the obvious questions such as why heavy fines are not imposed on each person who defiles a civic space Lets look instead at New York instead and the Broken Windows theoryImagine a neglected abandoned building with a few broken windows that have not been repaired for a good while The tendency would be for vandals to break a few more windows Eventually they might even break into the building and become squattersOr consider a pavement Some litter accumulates Soon more litter accumulates Eventually people even start leaving bags of refuse from takeout restaurants there Some begin breaking into parked carsThe Broken Windows theory introduced in 1982 by James Q Wilson and George L Kelling in The Atlantic Monthly says that a neglected environment with visible signs of antisocial behaviour civil disorder and crime encourages further disorder crime and disorder including serious crimesThe theory proposes that if the police or the community began targeting minor crimes such as vandalism public drinking and defiling public spaces with posters it would create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness that would prevent both minor and more serious crimesDavid Gunn President of the New York City Transit Authority used the Broken Windows theory to eliminate graffiti from New Yorks subways Any graffiti that appeared in the dead of night was scrubbed off by sunrise The vandals just gave upIn 1990 William Bratton head of New York City Transit Police and also a Broken Windows fan began cracking down on fare evasion slashing processing times but also starting background checks on offenders The assumption was that some who commit small crimes might be guilty of larger onesA 2001 study showed that both petty and serious crimes dropped significantly after the Broken Windows policies were implementedWhat does this mean for Andheri And Mumbai Something rather miraculous actually If the police began taking serious action against people who put up posters or litter public spaces imposing stiff penalties they could reap a much richer harvest than they might imagineNot only would they create a vigilant atmosphere with zero tolerance for small breaches but also discourage larger offensesLook at it this way theres a reason why Indians stop littering when they travel abroadHere viewed from there C Y Gopinath in Bangkok throws unique light and shadows on Mumbai the city that raised him You can reach him at cygopigmailcom Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from 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