I am an NSS-DTU volunteer and I came to know about Indian road safety campaign, when NSS-IITD team and TRIPP initiated the DTU chapter of IRSC. Amar Srivastava, student co-ordinator of NSS-IITD and Professor Geetam Tiwari, IIT-D civil engineering faculty form TRIPP Department visited our campus and organized an orientation session about the increased road accidents in India and their campaign. Till then, I’ve never seen Road Safety as a serious issue.
But as I started observing while walking on roads, or while taking my scooty lessons, or while travelling in a car, I realized that roads in Indian cities are highly risky and drivers of four wheelers and two wheelers are indifferent towards safety of pedestrians and bi-cycle riders.
Not long after, I witnessed an accident in front of our apartment. In my semester break, I was in Mumbai enjoying my holidays and having a peaceful time, when on an evening, we heard some noises coming from the road in front of our society. People had gathered around a fallen bicycle and traffic police was diverting traffic from the place. Me and my brother rushed to the balcony and when police cleared the crowd; we saw a body covered with blood and white sheet . I was mentally disturbed with the sight even though the victim was not my family. And then, I felt I could imagine the pain close friends or family of accidents victims go through. The sudden shock and trauma of early and unnatural death of a close-one is a huge misfortune for those affected.
Unfortunately, we are not influenced by high statistics of road accidents in India, but we are more influenced when it happens to someone close or when we see it ourselves. We can prevent them from happening to near and dear ones by sensitizing civilians about Traffic and Road safety rules. Campaign like IRSC which aims at spreading awareness at school or college level or identifying areas which are prone to road accidents is a needful and important initiative in current scenario. It is required that this campaign keeps evolving and reaches more and more students in maximum colleges and also more such campaigns emerge in near future.
Mahima Chugh
NSS-DTU
No comments:
Post a Comment