The Mumbai Traffic Police wants the younger generation to learn about road safety. On Wednesday, the traffic police interacted with over 90 underprivileged school children and made them aware of safe road-crossing practices, signal etiquette, importance of wearing a helmet and so on.
The event was organised ahead of the Road Safety Week that is observed from February 4 to 10.
“When children are made aware of road safety, they pass on the message to their parents, elder siblings, and others. Even if they don’t drive vehicles now, they will be responsible when they start driving,” said Jagdish Paredkar, a senior inspector with the traffic department, who is actively involved in the Road Safety Patrol (RSP) campaign.
The campaign is aimed at inculcating traffic discipline in school-going children. A team of senior inspectors, sub-inspectors, and constables work for RSP.
Each sub-inspector has about 30-35 schools under him. They visit these schools, organise lectures and educate students about road safety. The traffic police have also extended the awareness drive to workplaces and have reached out to employees in The Taj, Mahindra & Mahindra and several banks.
According to Mr. Paredkar, in 2016, nearly 1.5 lakh people lost their lives due to road accidents in the country. “Every six minutes, an accident leads to the hospitalization of victims, every nine minutes, a fatal accident takes place in the country,” he said.
Mumbai has only about 3,000 traffic police personnel, which is insufficient. “To stop such accidents, the best way is to educate and spread awareness among kids and inculcate road safety habits from an early stage,” he said.
Wednesday’s event saw underprivileged children from Akanksha Foundation and Yasham Foundation gather at the Traffic Park in Colaba. After the interaction, the children played traffic-themed games.
“We have trained more than 2 lakh students in road safety through different activities like drawing competitions, essay writing, slogan and poster-making etc. All these activities are a part of the RSP club in the schools,” said Rupa Kothari, trustee of Safe Kids Foundation that oragnised the event along with traffic police.
The foundation has been conducting activities with over 540 schools in Mumbai. They have also started similar activities in schools in Thane and Pune.