By Shubhangi Tambwekar
WDR , World Day of Remembrance of Road Traffic victims, is observed annually on the third Sunday of November. This year , Sanjay and I were privileged to be invited to Jaipur by Muskaan Foundation for Road Safety. Based in Jaipur, this foundation has been doing path breaking work in road safety since 2001.
The Arundhati Foundation and Muskaan have been born out of the same pain : Loss of our daughters in Road crashes. Dr Mridul and Shri Pramod Bhasin lost their daughter Durva in an accident in 1999. Muskaan was born out of the pain of loss in 2001. This interview of Dr. Mridul Bhasin says it all.
Since then , the Bhasin’s have done remarkable work in the field of traffic safety especially in educating students, professionals and even the police. They have developed a Teachers’ Manual that is quite unique – to help teachers bring road safety into the school with a structured curriculum for grades 6-12. This has well curated content, a structure to engage the students, and exercises to help the teachers and children to internalise the lessons.
We were extremely impressed with the community that Muskaan has built with people from all walks of life that is deeply committed to the cause and has taken the message further to various places in India. Muskaan has deservedly received received many national and international awards for this stellar work.
This year, children from over 45 schools participated in offering shraddhanjali, and then performing choir singing, theatre and dance drama creating awareness about various aspects of road safety. Students had also participated in a challenge, creating small but very impactful reels. It was a scintillating display of talent and hard work by about 600 students! We are sure the preparation for the event and the performance would have no doubt left a strong impression on them regarding road safety.
One of the key component of Muskaan’s WDR event is Samvaad – an interview with those victim families. We were invited for this segment, because of our attempt to go beyond the pain and devoted our efforts to the cause of improvement of road safety.
Dignitaries from Rajasthan Police we’re present and they gave their inputs and advice regarding the challenges in road safety.
Here is a link to the media coverage .
We have come back with lot of knowledge, insight and learning from this amazing foundation. We will be joining hands to work together in the field of awareness and education with Muskaan and look forward to it. To all its hardworking pillars of support led by Neha Khullar, their dedicated interns, Dr Mridul Bhasin, Shri Pramod Bhasin and their son Shantanu Bhasin, our pranaams.
For those interested, the work of Muskaan Foundation for Road Safety can be seen here .
Here are some pictures from the event.
