Very recently a newspaper headline said that in Bharat alone, one person died every 3 minutes in road accidents. It gave a staggering figure of 1,68,000 deaths in 2022 alone, because of road accidents. Read the daily newspaper and you will find news of some accident or the other in your area, may be in the city itself or on highways or in the hills.
Even the
recent wars between countries, or natural calamities have not witnessed such
high death figures. Deaths on roads are caused by us and are avoidable.
This is
something which cannot be blamed on the government. In fact, when we compare
from a few years earlier, the roads have become very good. The national
highways and express ways have in fact become so good that we take the liberty
of driving at speeds much more than the prescribed limits. Better cars have
added to this desire of driving at high speeds.
What can
we, as a society, do to address this issue. We just cannot afford to loose
precious lives, just because of carelessness. Imagine the sole bread earner of
the family, driving back home on his two-wheeler, is hit by a speeding vehicle
from behind and he is instantly killed. His complete family is shattered and no
amount of compensation can make up this loss.
Drunken
driving and dozing off while driving, because of lack of sleep, are two major
causes of road accidents. Speeding is another reason. We know of so many more
reasons. We know the problems. However, we should ponder on as to how the
problem has to be addressed. And only government intervention will never be
enough.
Schools,
colleges, NGOs, social clubs, or say wherever possible this should be the
subject of discussion and innovative ways to let each one of us understand the
gravity of the situation must be devised. We should not wait, for a tragic
incident to happen in our family to start addressing the issue. We should be
proactive and spread this awareness.
For schools
a special subject could be devised and NCERT can play a major role in making of
specific books with a lot of graphics. Not waiting for such interventions from
the Education Ministry, schools can start teaching the students on safe driving
in their own way. Students can play such an active role to change the attitude
of the parents who drive at high speeds, who drive after consuming liquor, who
do not follow traffic rules etc. Painting competitions, debates, plays can be organized
to create awareness. Students can also be motivated to campaign among the
society on road accidents and life loss. Some smart students can even create
digital campaigns which can be circulated among the school students and their
parents.
For
colleges, where the age group of students is the right target that has to be
touched, may be seminars, discussions, plays etc can be developed. The youth today
are so good in making of reels and videos, they should make very interesting
visuals which will attract the audience and create the right lesson. In their
own way they can make such awareness videos viral on Social Media and reach to
millions.
NGOs and
other social organisations can also play a major role here. We have the Rotary,
the Lions, the Jaycees and community clubs, who keep on doing work for the
society. What better work than to save human lives. Today, we have big
residential complexes in urban areas and here the RWAs can take upon themselves
to create this awareness.
Another
important vehicle to communicate could be the religious discourses, specially
the ones which attract the youth. In recent years many good speakers have
emerged who have a very good following. Not only people physically attend such
discourses but with the help of technology the ‘pravachan’ of good ones have
become viral on Facebook, YouTube and Whatsapp. If these renowned people start
talking of safe driving, the message will reach effectively to the audience.
The Highway
ministry on its part must increase the budget substantially for communication.
Use of all available vehicles to communicate, be it the traditional print media,
TV or Social Media must be used. If the youth are more attracted to Instagram
of Linkedin let us use them, if the highway drivers are using the ‘dhabas’ a
lot let us use these, let us make jingles to be played on FM which drivers
listen to while driving.
We cannot
let one person die every three minutes on the road. And we just cannot sleep
over the issue. Awake. If nothing else, at least forward any message that you
receive which is related to road safety, may be by vehicle manufacturers or by
tyre manufacturers, or created by anyone else.
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