The inauguration of the 14th edition of the Auto Expo-2018 this year saw Maruti Suzuki kick starting a unique 'Pehni Kya?' campaign to generate the need for always wearing a seat belt to ensure both passenger and road safety.
Using the medium of a flash dance performance organised by choreographer Ashley Lobo's The Danceworx Performing Arts Academy, this musical social awareness program attracted a relatively large audience. Young students of the academy danced and lip synced their way through the nearly ten-minute long sequence smoothly on two occasions, calling attention to the need for greater road safety across India.
A Road Accident Report 2016, published by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) said that in 2016 alone 5,638 lives were lost in India due to not wearing seat belts.
Some of the spectators at the flash dance were candid enough to say that they often ignore wearing seat belts or don't wear them at all on grounds of it being cumbersome. However, they said that after the "Pehni Kya" campaign, they promised to wear seat belts whenever in a vehicle.
It is estimated that only 25 percent of passengers wear seat belts, as per a Maruti Suzuki survey carried out recently.
Media reports have said that there are at least five reasons why passengers do not wear seatbelts:
. Weak legal enforcement
.
Personal image matters more than safety
. Seat belts crinkle clothes
. The belief that airbags are a better safety option, which is untrue
. Peer pressure
Maruti Suzuki Executive Director (Marketing and Sales) Randhir Singh Kalsi told ANI on the sidelines of the campaign that people need to take a conscious decision to belt-up and educate fellow commuters on the need for paying attention to simple safety measures.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)