On the occasion of Road Safety Week, children organised rallies, meetings and door- to- door visit to create awareness on road safety among the slum people at Jaganntah Nagar, Ambapua Bauri street, Raghupati Nagara Canal street, Dhimira Bauri street, lanjipalli Goudabandh street, Jagabandhu Bandha huda street and Gram Devati Bauri street.
Child club members such as Rudra Das, Suraj Das, Rinki Patra, Radha Das, Bala Das, Pinki Das, Suprava Das, Archana Sahu and Banita Nayak participated in the drive under the active guidance of NGO YSD. Abhiram Kanhar, Chandan Sahu, Sujata Bisoi and Suchitra Rout of YSD and several social activists were present.
The children gave priorities on stringent road safety measures, efficient traffic management and child friendly transport system in Brahmapur city.
Notably, Brahmapur has 163 slums with 1, 17, 541 people living in urban poverty. It has experienced very bad and unsafe roads and traffic and low access to public transport system which is a major component of safe and healthy neighborhood for children. This has narrowed down the physical and mental growth of children in slums and created an unsafe and unhealthy environment.
Safe roads, better traffic management and safe transport system are essential for the healthy living of children in slums and in city. Increasing population and vehicles in a commercial city like Brahmapur where roads are narrow, no space for pedestrians and lack of one way roads are the major concerns for mounting road accidents in the city, said YSD chief Ratneswar Sahu.