India's Supreme Court has declared that the right to walk safely on designated footpaths is a fundamental right, following the death of a five-year-old boy crushed by a truck while walking to school. The ruling challenges decades of urban planning that has consistently prioritised vehicles over pedestrians, despite roughly 45 million Indians walking to work daily — far outnumbering the approximately 5.4 million who commute by private car. The judgment is particularly significant in a country where pedestrians account for an estimated 30–40% of road deaths and where existing footpaths are routinely blocked by parked vehicles, encroachments, and construction, leaving the country's most vulnerable commuters to negotiate roads designed almost entirely around motorised traffic.