India, Nov. 3 -- Asif Shaikh was working at his sewing machine when he heard that 22-year-old Sanskruti Amin had been crushed to death by a concrete slab that fell on her as she walked past an under-construction site, nearby, on October 8. As the news sank in, his blood ran cold. The 37-year-old tailor in Jogeshwari east was transported back to a moment more than two years ago, when his wife and daughter met a similar fate.

"My wife Shama had picked up our nine-year-old daughter, Aayat, from school, and they were returning home in an autorickshaw when an iron rod from a partially constructed building, AIM Paradise, fell on them. My wife died instantly, and Aayat died hours later," recalled Shaikh.

Were Shama, Aayat and Amin merely in th...