CUTS Centre for Consumer Action Research and Training (CART)

Road Safety Awareness Programme
Final Report
Period: 10th November to 25th December 2003

I. Introduction

1.1 Right to life and safety is a fundamental right of any citizen. This is guaranteed under the constitution of every country in the world including India. Anything, which is hazardous to human, violates the right to life, and road safety is as much on the agenda as any other area, which may be accident-prone.

1.2 More number of people dies every year from road accidents all over the world than the number killed during the whole of the Second World War. Studies by World Bank have estimated that about 5,00,000 people lose their life each year as a result of road accidents and over 15 million suffer injuries. About 70 percent of these occur in developing countries particularly in African and Asian countries.

1.3 A look at some of the statistics on road safety presents a very grim picture worldwide and especially in developing countries like India. Road fatalities now leads the list of accidental deaths in India much more than any other such as by drowning, fire, rail or air mishaps etc. The magnitude of road accidents in India is increasing at an alarming rate. About 60,000 people are killed every year in India and top the world in the number of road fatalities. National level of fatalities per kilometer is 0.025. The road accidents were highest on National and State Highways i.e. 45 percent rather than rural roads (39 percent). Mostly heavy vehicles like buses and trucks are responsible for causing road accidents (43 percent). It has been estimated that 6 million more will die and 60 million will be injured during the next 10 years in developing countries unless preventive action is taken. India would account for 30 percent of these accidents.

1.4 The majority of road crash victims (injuries and fatalities) in developing countries are not the motorized vehicle occupants, but pedestrians, motorcyclists, bicyclists etc. Sixty percent deaths involve pedestrians and out of which 35 percent are children.

1.5 Road fatalities are due to a number of reasons, primary among them are bad condition of roads and traffic violations, poor implementation of various laws governing road traffic and safety issues, and last but not the least, the faulty engineering of road mechanics, may it be road design or traffic lighting etc.

1.6 Furthermore, lack of awareness of road safety issues amongst the masses, apathy of the policy makers and implementers etc. add to the increasing problem of road safety.

1.7 In the context of road safety, one thing, which is clear, is that increase in number of vehicles is tremendous without much improvement in the road network. The improvements in roads have been negligible. Adding to this is very poor traffic policing. The strength of the traffic police force in or out of cities has not increased substantially. It is a fact that enforcement can reduce accidents and improve the speed and flow of traffic.

1.8 In view of this, Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS), approached Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and proposed to undertake a road safety campaign in the city of Jaipur and utilise the tools of research, advocacy and networking to generate awareness on road safety and to bring about policy changes to address some of the burning issues of road safety.

1.9 The project involved active participation of school and college children, state administration, which includes State Road Transport Department, Traffic Police Department, public representatives, Traffic Warden team, Volunteers and Street Play Artists.

II. The Strategy

• The Campaigns and camps consisted of:
   

2.1 A team of people from CUTS, Jaipur Traffic Wardens, school children, Jaipur Traffic Police and volunteers participated and helped in managing the campaigns.  In addition, we were also fortunate to have some people from the public who volunteered in distributing leaflets and also explaining to the public about some of their experience vis-à-vis road safety. To ensure wider impact, we also employed some people on daily wages.

2.2 The broad road safety programme adopted two main sub-themes, one was related to awareness on road safety issues to the general public and the other was focused on road safety issues for school children.  The sub-theme of safety issues for school children also covered issues related to overloaded auto-rickshaws, general rules for school buses etc. 

2.3 Various tools/methods were used for the campaign, such as ‘T’ Shirts and caps depicting message of road safety, pamphlets and booklets on various road safety issues, street plays, banners and children’s rally shouting slogans on road safety.   

The identified major road junctions were:-

• Rambagh Junction
• Ajmeri Gate
• Paanch Batti
• Govt. Hostel
• Khasa Kothi

2.4 The road junction campaigns focused on general road safety issues for the masses and in each of the series of 5 campaigns, one issue was taken up as focused issue.  The issues, which were taken up for spreading awareness, were:

• The need for wearing helmet for both, the riders and the pillion riders
• Not using mobile phones while driving
• Not crossing Zebra Lines at signals or stopping vehicles before Zebra lines
• Signal jumping or avoiding signal jumping
• Overloading of school auto rickshaws or avoiding sitting in an overloaded auto rickshaw.
• Not mixing drinking and driving
• Wearing of seat belts

III. Report of Individual Activities

3.1 Road Junction Campaigns (10^th November 03 to 14^th November 03)

The selected road junctions were Ajmeri Gate, Rambagh Crossing, Paanch Batti, Govt. Hostel and Khasa Kothi

10^th November, 03 (opening at Yaadgaar, Ajmeri Gate)

The flag off for the Road Safety Programme was done with a road junction campaign at one of the busiest road junctions of Jaipur, the Ajmeri Gate.  The flag off campaign had luminaries in the area of Road Safety participating and spending quality time with the general public, such as Superintendent Police, Traffic of Jaipur City, Ms Malini Agrawal, Dr Jeet Chandok, Chief Traffic Warden of Jaipur and others from the police and transport department.

Ms Malini Agrawal herself distributed literature to the road users and also addressed the gathering. Ms Agrawal in her address gave some very important tips on road safety to the road users. She appreciated CUTS’ efforts in generating awareness among masses, especially to the riders of all kind of vehicles.

Dr Chandok and other traffic wardens also shared some of their experience as wardens and gave tips to the volunteers and distributed reading materials to the road users.

Around 20 children of Bright Buds School also participated in the programme wearing white ‘T’ Shirt and white cap with slogans depicted on road safety. 

Nukkad Natak group “Goonj” with around ten participants gave message of road safety through their performance. The important message from the play were for the auto rickshaw drivers regarding overloading of school children while transporting them to school and back, for drunken roadways bus drivers and for two wheeler riders to use helmets.

Later the volunteers and other team members moved to other road junctions. The timings for the campaigns, which were followed, were from 11 AM to 4 PM i.e. around an hour at each of the five junctions.

11^th November 2003 (flag off at Rambagh Crossing)

On 11^th November 2003, the campaign was flagged off at the Rambagh crossing by Dr B L Jatawat, Regional Transport Officer. Like the Traffic S.P., RTO also came on the roads and distributed the pamphlets and other materials to road users. The RTO on one instance also directed some drivers not to jump the zebra crossing. The RTO was impressed with the participation of over 20 school children from Bright Buds School in the campaign. On this occasion, another Nukkad Natak team Parampara displayed the performance and gave the message of road safety to the road users.

The team later on moved to other road junctions for further work.

12^th November 2003 (flag off at Paanch Batti)

On 12^th November 2003, Dr Jeet Chandok, Chief Traffic Warden flagged off the campaign at Paanch Batti crossing. Dr Chandok has always been an active participant as far as the road safety work is concerned. He stayed there for one hour and directed the campaign and not only gave some tips to the road users but also suggested some very useful tips to the boys and school children participating in the campaign on behalf of CUTS.

After and hour or so, the team moved further to the other road junctions for the days rest work. Trimurti Sansthan presented a Nukkad Natak and displayed some road safety rules through this.

13^th November 2003 (flag off at Govt. Hostel crossing)    

On 13^th November 2003, Traffic Police in-charge Shri Gopal Sharma flagged off the programme. Govt. Hostel junction is one of the most important and busiest road junctions of Jaipur. Many business corporate offices and Banks surround it.

20 to 25 children of Bright Buds School participated and provided an emotive input to the campaign.

There were repeat campaigns at the four road junctions. The volunteers and the CUTS staff participated with traffic wardens and the traffic police personnel supporting the campaign.

People looked keen to see the literature distributed. On this day, the main focus of the campaign lied on three important issues namely:

·        City buses operating in Jaipur

·        Non motorised vehicles plying on Jaipur roads

·        Helmets for two wheeler riders.

The volunteers were taught to preach lessons to the targeted people. It is often seen that city buses often stops where they are not supposed to and many a times do not follow many traffic rules. The drivers of these vehicles were given a lesson.

Other issue was regarding non-motorised vehicles like cycle rickshaws, bicycles and animal driven carts. They were taught to follow a lane and other traffic rules.

Though helmets are now being wore by majority of two wheeler riders in Jaipur, but it is often seen that these some riders don’t wear while riding in the colonies or in the interior areas.

Thus this mentality of riders has to be changed and so all the two wheeler riders crossing through these four road junctions were handed over literature.

14^th November 2003 (flag off at Khasa Kothi junction)

14^th November was the last of the road junction campaigns. This day, the flag off was done at Khasa Kothi, the last of the five selected junction.

This Road Junction surrounds the roads to railway station, bus stand, session’s court and collectorate buildings. On one side of the junction is located a circuit house of the Govt. of Rajasthan. Thus is a very important junction.

Around 25 school children of Tagore Public School, Shastri Nagar took part as volunteers. The team then moved to other junctions after working here for hour.

Thus at one junction, total five campaigns were organised totaling to 25 campaigns.

In all these campaigns, the target group was the road users, which comprised of two wheeler riders, four wheeler drivers, three wheeler drivers, cyclists, rickshaw pullers and others.

3.2 Road Safety Camps

15^th November 2003 (first road safety awareness camp for School Children at Tagore Public school)

On 15^th November 2003, a camp was organised at Tagore Public School, which is one of the biggest schools in Jaipur with as many as four branches and is located at Shastri Nagar in Jaipur.

In this school, it was a very good show with students taking part with great interest. Nukkad show was also organised here.

Director Shri P D Singh inaugurated the camp and distributed some of the literatures to the students.

17^th November 2003 (second road safety awareness camp for roadways drivers at Sindhi Camp Bus Stand)

The second camp on road safety was dedicated to the drivers and conductors of the Road Transport Buses.

Chief Manager of the Depot, Shri Basant Singh inaugurated the camp and distributed some of the literatures to the drivers of buses.

Shri Govind Acharya, Manager (Administration) and Shri Narendra Chowdhary, Manager (Traffic) were also present on the occasion.

Shri Basant Singh spoke on the need of traffic education for bus drivers and also praised CUTS efforts in this direction.

It was a very fascinating look to see school children and CUTS hired boys wearing the same T-shirt and Cap with slogans on it and moving all around the bus stand.

Trimurti artists played a Nukkad Natak at platform number one, which was viewed by all the passengers waiting, the bus drivers, the conductors and the managers of the depot.
 

The main preaching to the drivers in the camp were:
 

·        Not to drive in drunken stage

·        Not to overtake dangerously

·        Not to drive unless perfect vision

·        Not to violate other traffic rules.

22^nd November 2003 (third road safety awareness camp for School Children at Bhagwandas Road)

This road starts from Paanch Batti near Rajmandir and goes upto new Vidhan Sabha building. This road has six lanes, which is one of the fewer roads in Jaipur of this kind. The road is important not from the heavy rush traffic point of view but important from the schools point of view also. Apart from this, it is perhaps the only road in Jaipur with as much as seven different schools situated.

The purpose of organising the camp was to target school children and the drivers of their transporting modes.

CUTS team comprising of hired personnel, volunteers and wardens reached to the spot which is the closest to all the schools and started the camp.

Since different schools have different timings of interval breaks and closing, a common time when all the schools break for the day was selected to start it.

The team preached to all the school children about the road safety tips and also targeted school bus operators, auto drivers, cycle rickshaws etc.

A large of school children gathered around and tried to take the literature from the volunteers. This camp lasted for about two hours.

Important feature of this camp was:

·        It was targeted to school transportation

·        It was targeted to drivers of buses and different modes being used for the purpose of transporting school children

·        It was targeted to school children having their own conveyance

·        It was also targeted to the school authorities responsible for school transportation.

·        Some parents who came to pick their wards also were taught a lesson of road safety.

The camp was a magnificent effort and was praised by every one including principles and teachers of school.
 

24^th November 2003 (fourth road safety awareness camp for auto rickshaw drivers at auto stand outside railway station)

This camp was meant specifically for the auto rickshaw drivers. The biggest autorickshaw stand in Jaipur is located outside the railway station of Jaipur.

School students and CUTS hired boys gathered around the stand and distributed the literature to the drivers of these auto rickshaws.

Before that a small function was organised at an open space in front of the pre-paid booth, where pre-paid booth in-charge Shri Himmat Singh flagged off the camp.

Goonj artists gave a Nukkad Natak performance with preaching on road safety to the auto drivers.
 

The issues addressed were:
 

·        Not to overload the vehicle specially the school children

·        Not to overtake

·        Not to driver with imperfect vision

·        To charge only through meter.

·        Not to violate the road rules and other traffic signals.
 

25^th November 2003 (special road safety awareness programme for school children at Udyog Lawns, near Statue Circle)

About 108 school children and their teachers from 6 different schools in the city gathered for an on-the-spot painting and poster competition at Udyog Lawns near Statue Circle. CUTS hired boys distributed road safety literature to these school children and the teachers. Later on prizes were distributed to the winners of this competition.

27^th November 2003 (fifth road safety awareness camp for cycle rickshaw pullers outside bus stand)

The fifth camp was organised for cycle rickshaw pullers. The venue was a place outside the Sindhi Camp Bus Stand, where a stand, which perhaps happens to be the biggest one for the rickshaw pullers is located.

The rickshaw pullers were brought forward at one place and taught lessons on road safety. Some very important and useful tips were given to them.
 

Parampara displayed its Nukkad Natak and tried to teach road safety rules through their play.
 

The issues addressed were:
 

·        To avoid overloading

·        To maintain the speed

·        To avoid overtaking

·        To avoid violating traffic signals

29^th November 2003 (sixth road safety awareness camp for School Children at Bright Buds School, Jhotwara, Jaipur)
 

Bright Buds School is located in Jhotwara Colony in the outer part of Jaipur at Sikar Road and has also military area adjacent to it.
 

The Principal of this school has been very cooperative through out our programme; hence at her initiative, we organised a camp in this school itself.
 

This school is of the senior secondary level and the time fix for the camp was between the interval break. The children were asked to sit in queue in the school ground.
 

Initially there were brief lectures on road safety and the school Principal, Mrs. Usha Singh and CUTS rep. delivered these lectures. Later on volunteers and hired boys distributed the literature on road safety and the teachers also gave a supporting hand.
 

At the end, Trimurti Sansthan players gave their performance through a Nukkad Natak. 
  

The highlights of the camp were:
 

·        Targeting school children going or coming to their schools on their own vehicle,

·        Targeting school buses operating to transport school children, 

·        Targeting auto-rickshaws and other modes of transport of school children.

6^th December 2003 (seventh road safety camp for school children at Marylands School, Jaipur)

A camp was organised again for the school children on 6^th December 2003 at Marylands School, which is situated on Bhagwan Das Road of Jaipur. Principal Mrs. Rita Agrawal inaugurated the camp. The school is of the primary level with as much as fifty percent of the students coming through their own vehicles. Trimurti group performed Nukkad Natak show. The camp was targeted to the students of senior age group studying in colleges and university. Students of the university were taught lessons of all the issues of road safety and were also given literature. Students showed great interest and took the literature. CUTS reps gave some very useful tips to the students regarding the importance of helmets and other traffic signals.

11^th December 2003 (eighth road safety camp for private jeep drivers at Ghatgate Bus Stand)

This camp was organised in order to preach lessons of road safety to the drivers of the jeeps plying in rural and interior areas of Jaipur and nearby adjacent towns and villages as public transport vehicles.

It is observed that these drivers overload their vehicles and often meet with severe accidents resulting into heavy casualties.

So it is very important to teach these drivers.

Asst. Chief Traffic Warden, Shri Fateh Singh inaugurated the camp. School children and hired boys went to the drivers and distributed the literature.

CUTS personnel preached them the lesson of road safety.

The main issues taken in the camp were:

·        Not to overload the vehicles

·        Not to overtake while carrying so many passengers

·        Not to disobey the rules of traffic

·        Not to ply without license and proper permit

13^th December 2003 (ninth road safety camp for general road users at Badi Chopar)

Badi Chopar is situated in the midst of old Jaipur and not very far from the famous historical Hawa Mahal.

This road junction is also one of the most crowded crossings of Jaipur. Important feature is that vehicle of all types which also includes auto rickshaws, Tonga, cycle rickshaws, bicycles etc. flows through this crossing.

The venue of the camp was an open place near Police Station of Badi Chopar. SHO, Badi Chopar, Mr. Devi Singh Jodhawat inaugurated the camp and personally met all the persons present in the camp, which included Nukkad Natak team, school children, volunteers and CUTS staff.

Mr. Singh praised CUTS for their efforts and distributed literatures with his own hands.

Banners were put on all the four sides of the junctions and school children were divided equally at the four sides and so were the volunteers. Nukkad Natak team Parampara displayed its performance, which attracted a huge crowd. The camp lasted for around three hours.

Volunteers taught pedestrians how to walk on the roadside or footpath and also showed them how to cross the road using the zebra lines where there are no subways.

It is often noticed that four wheeler drivers and two wheeler riders have the tendency to blow horns unnecessary even when they are in the “no-horn” zone. The volunteers tried to preach them about the proper use of horns.

Fourthly, the importance of traffic lights. The road users of all kinds were showed the importance of traffic lights and its proper usage. The literature concerned was distributed to them.

14^thDecember 2003(tenth road safety camp for general road users at Railway Station Crossing)

The tenth and the last camp was again dedicated to the general road users which comprises of the drivers of all types of vehicles, rickshaw pullers, animal driven carts and cyclists. There was a huge crowd trying to see the Natak. School children gave message of road safety to the road passers.

The main focus of the last two camps were:

·        Pedestrians on road

·        Procedures to follow while crossing a road

·        Use of Zebra Lines

·        Unnecessary blowing of horns

·        Importance of traffic lights

 3.3 School Children Rally

On 15^th December 2003, a school children rally was organised. Around 140 school children participated from different schools. The rally started from Yaadgaar at Ajmeri Gate and was routed through main M I Road and then culminated at Shahid Smarak near Govt. Hostel.
 

Dr Jeet Chandok, Chief Traffic Warden flagged off the rally. The school children participating in the rally wore white T-Shirts and Caps with slogans depicted on it and were carrying placards with slogans such as:

·        Sadak Suraksha-Jeevan Raksha

·        Sadak Suraksha Ka Gyan-Milta Hai Jeevan Dan

·        Laparvahi Se Vahan Na Chalayein-Apna va Apne Parivar ka Jeevan Bhachayein

·        Vahanon mein overloading na Karein-Ye Khatre se kam Nahin

·        Helmet Pahanna Jaroori-Do Pahiya Vahanon ke liye Sandesh etc
 

The school children distributed the literatures they have in their hands to the road passers. Almost every citizen on the road viewed the rally. People even stopped and requested for the material and read it very keenly.

3.4 Fixing of reflectors

Around 240 reflectors were (as against the targeted 200) affixed at the four state roads namely:

• Anaj Mandi in Jaipur on 21st December, 2003
• Sabji Mandi on 22nd December, 2003
• Anaj Mandi on 23rd December, 2003
• Sanganer town on 24th December, 2003
• Chomu at Sikar Road on 25th December, 2003.

The animal driven carts targeted includes:

• Camel carts
• Bullock carts
• Horse carts
• Man driven carts like thela etc.
• Tractor Trolleys

IV. The Participants

In the whole programme on road safety organised by CUTS and supported by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the persons who supported, participated and witnessed the programmes were:

• The school children of different schools of Jaipur who actively participated in our programme specially the camps. In each camp atleast 20 to 25 children took part. We are thankful to the school administration and the parents of those children for their due support.
• The traffic wardens under the strong supervision of their leader Dr Jeet Chandok.
• CUTS volunteers and staff personnel who with their full dedication made the programme easy go through.
• Govt. officials like S. P. Traffic, RTO, Assistant RTO and other officials of the department of transport and police department for their full cooperation and support.
• The three groups of Nukkad Natak who tried to impart the message of road safety with their performances in the easiest manner.  

V. The Impact

5.1 The impact of the road safety programmes can be classified under three heads, namely, policy initiatives, qualitative impact in road users and quantitative impact on safety on roads.

5.2 While it is too early to comment on any policy impact or quantitative indicators of improvement on road safety, there has definitely been a number of qualitative indicators.  The following are some of them:

• Keen interest taken by general public on road safety issues, this is indicated by a good response received by us from general public, requesting us to organise more such programmes on a regular basis.
• The keen interest taken by the general public on the issue is also indicated by the fact that many of them volunteered themselves to help the CUTS team in organising the various programmes at road junctions.  In fact many of them also spoke to road users about their experiences, good or bad implying on the need to improve safety on roads.
• The Road Transport Office was impressed by our work and requested us to organise special camps for them in their premises, for license seekers.
• Several public sector organisations have come forward to help us in the campaigns by sponsoring hoarding and banners, which was used to continue our campaign during the Road Safety week in January 2004.

5.3 Some preliminary quantitative indicators are:

• Some autorickshaw drivers have reduced the intake of school children.
• Schools where the camps were organised have now set up a monitoring system every morning to check if the auto rickshaws or cycle rickshaws are not over loading their vehicles.
• Strict vigilance can be viewed at the places from where the private jeeps ply.

5.4 While we have not made an assessment in terms of policy level impact, there has been an impact on organisations and fleet owners to have exclusive road safety programmes for their staff. 

5.5 Yet another major impact is that many merchants in the vegetable and grain market have asked all their transporters to ensure that the carts have reflectors.  This is proved by the fact that some of them approached us to find out as where one could procure reflectors and also requested us, if we could sponsor some more such reflectors.  CUTS used the opportunity of Road Safety Week, to keep up the momentum and continued the campaign of affixing reflectors to carts and tractor trolleys.  A total of 500 additional reflectors was sponsored and affixed on carts and tractor trolleys by the CUTS team.