As part of the Daan Utsav in October, Qwikcilver Solutions Pvt Ltd picked Road Safety. There were two parts to this : a campaign to increase awareness with the general public, and a specific training session on “Drive Safely” conducted within the organization.

The Volunteers carried out a campaign on Road Safety at the Forum Mall Traffic Junction. For about 3 hours, they walked around with placards drawing attention to road safety. Be Aware. Be Safe. The volunteers were careful not to distract moving vehicles, they walked along the streets where the traffic was halted at the signal to share the message and increase awareness.

There was also an interesting attempt to use “Gandhigiri” for this cause.
The first two chocolates were given to riders using helmets. Then, the idea germinated. The next chocolate was handed over to a rider who had his helmet on his hand with the words “Wear your helmet, so you can continue to eat more chocolates!” It had a great impact! Not just on the person, but others around as well! And so, we gave away chocolates to errant drivers to nudge them towards safety. Drivers who were
… without helmets
… with helmets but not using them properly
… using cellphones
… riding bikes on the footpath
… driving on the wrong side

Here is a sample of the placards used

The Drive Safely Session exhorted participants to cultivate a mindset for Safety. With over 78% of accidents resulting from choices made by drivers ( speed, loading, drinking, dangerous driving, ..) the focus was on defensive driving and saying “No” to distracted driving. The participants signed a pledge, affirming their commitment to road safety, and this was also carried further to others in the organization.

As you know, we, at The Arundhati Foundation are doing our bit trying to find effective ways to tackle the menace of potholes and road safety, and trying to partner BBMP and Bangalore Traffic Police in the process. Last week I got a pleasant surprise when I got a call from BBMP. The person on the phone told me that the complaint I had registered was attended to, and will be closed. I am sharing my experience using BBMP SAHAAYA
This is to urge all fellow-citizens in Bangalore to utilize this platform for driving civic improvements. At the very least, we will have a true picture of the potholes that matter to our citizens!

What’s the story?

Back in January, I discovered BBMP SAHAAYA. This site allows citizens to voice their concerns and complaints related to various categories: Garbage, Roads, Potholes, Encroachment, Corruption, Stray Animals, Pollution, Welfare, Parks, Illegal Activity, Sanitation and Health, etc. And under each category, there are some “complain types” to choose from.

I decided to check out this site, and to see how effective it is.

On Feb 01, 2015, I registered complaint number 9740483; Category = Road Maintenance, Category Type = Potholes. It was about a pothole-strewn road near the Ambedkar Institute of Management Studies, Appareddipalya, Bangalore 560008. The site allowed me to identify the spot via Google maps, and to upload photographs as evidence. The site automatically identifies the department that will need to address this. The priority is also assigned automatically – the user has no control over it. In this case, it was marked as MEDIUM.

I got an immediate acknowledgement, and a message that this will be attended to in 2 weeks. I was impressed. But after two weeks I realized that there was really no movement. When I went to the Sahaaya site, I could not do any active follow up online. I kept at it for several days.

On June 10, 2015, I registered another complaint: number 10504918. I referenced my previous complaint, and also stated that I had no way to query progress against my old complaint. Once again, I got an immediate response saying that the issue will be tackled in 2 weeks. I tracked this again for several days, but saw no progress. I was quite disappointed, and had the feeling that the Sahaaya program was just non-functional.

Then out of the blue, on Sep 17, 2015, I got the phone call from BBMP. I was told the problem has been attended to, and my complaint will be closed. I also got an SMS message saying the same. In fact, I got two of them – one for each of the complaints I had registered.

I went to the site to check, and I was disturbed to find that the road was still in a bad state. This weekend, I made another visit to the site. And I was pleasantly surprised to see that the potholes have been filled, and the road has been tarred! I have provided the feedback via the site that over 6 months to tackle a problem is not acceptable. Further, problems should not be marked “closed” prematurely. Intent is not enough, we need actual closure.

There has been a lot of hue and cry about the state of our roads and potholes in the past few days. Many innocent lives have been lost on our city roads in the past few months. It is heartening to see individuals trying to bring in a change by raising petitions through change.org. We, at The Arundhati Foundation are doing our bit trying to galvanize BBMP and meeting the authorities in the traffic department. All such activities definitely help in putting pressure on civic authorities. All the public pressure might have prompted the action in BBMP, and not just my complaint. However, the complaint at least gave the coordinates of the location, and probably directed the repair plans.

I urge all of you to report potholes and bad roads using this site. Don’t be passive, don’t be indifferent, don’t shrug it off with “nothing works”. All it needs from you is just a few moments to register your concern. After a complaint is registered, the progress may not be to your satisfaction, but there is some evidence that someone is monitoring and tracking, although not all aspects are visible to the citizen. There is a lot of room for improvement, and it is through usage and feedback that we will get this improvement. I, for one, will continue to leverage Sahaaya. This is an attempt to share the experience broadly, so more citizens use the available platform, demand accountability and transparency, and make Sahaaya even better.

We arrived at the school campus off Sarjapur road at about 11:30. The motto of the school is in bright yellow, and says “Our Tomorrow Is Today”. I felt this was quite apt, for we are aiming to inculcate the values of road safety in our young students today, with the hope for a better tomorrow when they grow up and lead by example.

Soon after lunch, the meeting area was buzzing with the chatter of the young students. Shubhi kicked off the presentation and quickly engaged the crowd.

The statistics always hit hard. When Shubhi drove home the point “More people die in road accidents in India, than of AIDS; it is equivalent to a jet-liner crashing every day!!” The impact on the students and teachers was palpable.

They sat up and took notice of the pie chart that says more than 90% accidents can be avoided by defensive driving ( no overspeeding, no overloading, no driving under influence ).

When Shubhi discussed the Tips for Pedestrians, Riders and Children, the young students quickly grasped the reasons behind, and their importance.

One boy chimed in about the motorcycles that ride on footpaths. Shubhi exhorted the students to stand up to wrong behavior and calmly, politely ask the person to get back on the road. She shared her own example: when she urged a young scooter rider to take his helmet out of his bag and wear it. “Your bag does not need protection, your head does! Your mother will be waiting for you at home”.

I saw Shubhi taking a pause and a deep breath when it came to the slide “Why do we do this?”. It is not easy to talk about Aru, to talk of her accident, and how we wish no family loses a loved one to road accidents. I know what she was going through at the moment, but she held her poise in front of the large crowd. I know the word courage comes from “corage” or “cor” which means “heart, innermost feelings”. Shubhi’s effort exemplified this with the courage and resolve derived from our wonderful daughter’s wonderful memory.

This time, we did something different. We introduced a Pledge. The children whole-heartedly joined Shubhi in making the Pledge. I had goosebumps when the voice of 180 children in the room rose in unison to say “I shall follow the rules of the road…”. Shubhi asked the students to sign our Foundation Book if they believe in the Pledge, and if they will carry it forward. It was heartening to see them all come forward to sign their names! We think the Pledge is a great call to action, and not just passive listening.

We also shared a brief animated video created by Toyota Safety Education Program. This is targeted to young school children, and it certainly helped to reinforce the message.

After the talk, students and teachers came forward to talk to us. It was clear that the brief talk had some impact on them. They shared some concerns, they shared their desire to take the message forward, some want to connect us with other schools. We think even if a handful of the audience take the message to heart, it will make a difference!

A big thanks to Riad Mahmood and Priya ma’am, and Sandhya Lovekar who helped organize today’s session.

Students and Teachers of Head Start, we welcome your feedback.

-Sanjay