Post-crash impact among low income households is more severe compared to high income households with incidence of deaths among poor households as high as 44 per cent in rural areas compared to 11.6 per cent in urban areas, a study conducted by the World Bank and Save Life Foundation on the socio-economic burden of road crashes released by Nitin Gadkari, union minister.
The report titled ‘Traffic Crash Injuries and Disabilities: The Burden on Indian Society’ stated that lower income households (LIH) reported twice the numbers of deaths post-crash vis-à-vis high income households (HIH) adding that victims from LIH and rural areas are also twice more likely to suffer a disability after a crash than their HIH counterparts.
Overall, the post-crash impact was more severe for LIH in low capacity states compared to HIH in high capacity states, it noted.
“The socio-economic burden of road crashes is disproportionately borne by poor households. The decline in total household income was sharper among LIH (75 per cent) than HIH (54 per cent). The severe impact of decline in income was highest among LIH in rural areas (56 per cent) compared to LIH in urban areas (29.5 per cent) and HIH rural (39.5 per cent), and cases where victims died as well as where victims were males,” it said.
Within households, women bear the brunt of care giving activities post-crash, leading to a double burden of labour and mental load and exacerbated inequality of opportunities in returning to livelihoods and income generating tasks, it noted.
India tops the world in road crash deaths (WHO, 2018), with more than 400 fatalities per day. India has one per cent of the world’s vehicles but accounts for 11 per cent of all road accident deaths and six per cent of total road crashes, according to the ministry of road transport and highways.
In the last decade alone, road crashes have killed 1.3 million and injured over 5 million in India.
“The risk of a road crash in low-income countries is three times higher than compared to that in high-income countries. Not only does it lead to untold and unaccounted for suffering and loss for victims and their families, but also, it drains the GDP of countries by claiming millions of economically productive young live
Road crash deaths in India, which are the highest in the world, are a burden on its demographic dividend and have a tangible impact on poverty. The disproportionate impact can be gauged by the fact that with only one per cent of world’s vehicles, India accounts for 11 per cent of all crash-related deaths or expressed different, a crash death happening every four minutes,” said Junaid Kamal Ahmad, country director, India, World Bank. HT
