After the roaring success of the 2023 chapter, the Second Edition of Sadak Suraksha Abhiyan started with even greater enthusiasm to drive home the importance of road safety. In the build-up to the grand telethon on February 3rd, 2024, multiple events and awareness initiatives were conducted nationwide. Eight cities were identified, and eight special regional chapters were formed to address the issues specific to those regions.
The initiative for the year 2024 followed the theme ‘Samvedna ka Safar’, making ’empathy’ the focus in all of its discussions and events. To reinforce the need for empathy, statistics from MoRTH’s road accident reports were repeatedly used to draw attention to the concerning numbers of road accident casualties and the imminent need for such an initiative.
On February 3rd, the ultimate event of the campaign, the grand Telethon, was commenced by prominent veteran actor, Mr. Amitabh Bachchan. Lending his support to the cause for a second year in a row, he laid importance on the key focus points of Sadak Suraksha Abhiyan 2024, namely, ‘respect’, ‘patience’, ‘safety’, and ‘collaboration’.
The telethon was also joined by eminent author and philanthropist, Smt. Sudha Murty, to emphasize the importance of teaching traffic rules and basic road etiquette to children at a young age. She went on to state that “young minds are like wet walls, as they absorb and retain everything easily”. She stated that kids and young adults learn through “seeing by example” and that parents and teachers are the first role models. Hence, reinforcing the idea that we all have to begin by first changing our individualistic mindset and collaborating with other road users to ensure everyone’s safety. Mrs. Murty emphasized how positive examples can only be set for others to follow if we are practicing safety ourselves.
Founder of SaveLIFE Foundation, Piyush Tewari, along with Justice Indu Malhotra, explained why it is important to make the public aware of the Good Samaritan Law and how effective its implementation has been. Justice Malhotra elaborated on the nuances of the law and explained how both the general Good Samaritans and the ones who are witnesses to a road accident death will be duly protected under it. Building on the need to encourage more people to come forward to help an accident victim, Mr. Tewari explained the ‘3 C’s’ that are crucial to be performed by a Good Samaritan within an hour – called the ‘Golden Hour’ – of a road accident. The 3 C’s entail ‘Checking for the victim’s condition’, ‘Calling authorities for help’, and ‘Caring for the victim however possible’.
In the ‘Suraksha’ panel discussion with various biking groups, the importance of helmets took center stage as statistics show that the majority of two-wheeler deaths happen to people who don’t wear helmets. Actor and avid biker, R. Madhavan talked about how one cannot predict ‘how someone else on the road will behave or react’, so everyone has to take care of their own safety. The actor laid emphasis on wearing helmets, citing the mandatory rule established by the 2019 Motor Vehicle Act that states that ‘every individual above the age of 4 has to wear a helmet while traveling on a two-wheeler vehicle’. The discussion also touched upon other aspects of helmets by talking about the legal standards set by the Bureau of Indian Standards that helmet manufacturers have to abide by and how helmets have to be taken care of because they are only designed to protect from impact only once! The telethon was concluded with the musical addition of singer Shankar Mahadevan and lyricist Prasoon Joshi in the form of the Sadak Suraksha Anthem that incorporates the message of road safety in a beautiful melody and serves as an inspiration to every citizen with its lyrics ‘parvah karenge, surakshit rahenge’ which further reinforces the need for empathy on roads to stay safe. Watch the anthem here: [link].
Overall, the mission of the Sadak Suraksha Abhiyan 2024 telethon has been to teach all the citizens of India the importance of empathy on roads to ensure road safety. It is also imperative to increase awareness of laws and the sense of duty and responsibility that people have towards the lives of others. The telethon brought home the idea that to ensure road safety for all, it is important to have a proper partnership between all the parties involved and to make everyone responsible for one another.
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