In India, road fatalities take an unacceptable toll; bad habits more than anything else is a prime cause for this. Maybe it is time the next generation is encouraged to take up the wheel as much as they take up chemistry and mathematics at school
Driver education is a part of the school syllabus in many countries across the world. Maybe it is time that young Indians at school are encouraged to take up the wheel as much as they take up chemistry and mathematics. There is a reason for this, over the past year, according to official statistics, over 146,000 people were killed on Indian roads and over 5,00,000 people were injured. If these figures do not raise alarm, god knows what will.
It is truly a war-zone on the Indian roads, and the rule of law or traffic regulation has made matters worse in many parts of the country. Encouraged by local politicians and by inadequate or corrupt policing, roads are filled with vehicles that should not be there. We celebrate jugaad in India, but on road, unauthorised vehicles create death traps for children and adults alike.
We happily send our children to school, packed like sardines in vans and even those with money happily allow their children to sit on the driver’s lap or the front seat. Road safety inspectors from Western nations would probably have an heart attack when they see how Indians drive at roundabouts.
Some of these challenges have to be met with better enforcement and policing along with regulation. Indeed, some welcome changes have been made. The bus body code, notified by the Ministry of Road Transportation and Highways, has ostensibly made buses safer by prescribing what materials can be used as well as regulations for comfort, including specifying a certain seat pitch and ceiling height.
Of course, this has been opposed by a large number of unorganised bus body builders who will now have to certify every design.
And this is not the first time that a livelihood argument has been used to try and stall mean-meaning regulation. Tobacco farmers have opposed the new cigarette pack regulation, even though there is little doubt that lower rates of cigarette smoking is beneficial to public health programmes. Similarly, the new bus code should improve survivability chances in case of bus accidents.
But much like smokers above 40 years of age, there is a cogent argument that some older folks have which is to say that they did not know better when they started smoking. Even though today it is a well-established fact that smoking cigarettes can lead to lung cancer among several other ills, these facts only started emerging in the public consciousness around the early 1990’s. And while smoking is banned at public places now, back then, smoking was allowed even on airplanes. Indeed, some old aircraft still have passenger seat ashtrays.
But today, every school kid is taught that smoking is bad for health. In fact, children are at the forefront of smoking cessation campaigns for adults. Much like anti-smoking campaigns, children have also been brought to the forefront of the Modi Government’s Swachch Bharat campaign. There is some sense in this, it is extremely difficult for adults to change habits. Again, to illustrate using the example of smoking, natural cessation rates for smokers is under two per cent annually.
However, inculcating a habit of cleanliness in children is a great way to make sure that the next generation is cleaner than the previous generations. One aspect where teaching children has been successful has been the successful campaign to reduce the usage of fireworks on Diwali.
Similarly, one can argue that bad driving habits passes down from generation to generation. Children tend to pick up poor habits from observing those around them, with few punishments for poor driving, young adults are often the worst drivers on the road although, they should legally not even be driving in some cases.
There is little doubt that every student in schools across India, and definitely in urban India, will be exposed to the driving seat of a car or two-wheeler sooner than later. If these boys and girls are taught not just theoretically but also practically, how to drive safely and securely on roads, this will dramatically improve the standards of driving in this country and one hopes that as a corollary, the number of deaths on Indian roads can be reduced.
The system of acquiring a driving license in India too is inefficient. Pimps outside the license issuing authority will do their utmost to satisfy their clients, so that people who should not get licenses can acquire them. And even if one State cleans up its licensing authority, given that a license is valid nation-wide, there is no stopping anyone from acquiring a license.
There are hundreds of Government-approved driving schools, yet there is no certification course to become a driver trainer. Having undergone several driver training classes over the years as an automotive reviewer, this writer has been taught the basic skills such as how to hold a steering wheel properly and how to adjust the seat position. Unfortunately, these basic and simple skills are not taught in driving schools. Bad habits such as tripple riding on motorcycles and poor overtaking with cars, let alone mobile usage while on the go, are allowed to fester like bad wounds.
And the wound is taking a toll. In the past decade, over a million Indians died on the roads, a large majority of them young, productive members of society. Millions more have had life-threatening injuries or have been crippled. Studies indicate that road accidents take a significant chunk of India’s earning potential every year. While several automotive companies such as Maruti Suzuki and Hero MotoCorp have established driver training centers across the country, these are not being fully utilised.
Maybe it is time that the Human Resource Development Ministry considered making driving and road safety a subject that is taught in schools. Not to be graded for college admission, but just to teach the next generation of Indians how to be better road users. Appreciating the fact that the education system in India is already overtaxed, maybe this should start as a pilot project in some urban schools. Even if the Ministry does not go down this route, maybe some school administrators can associate with automotive companies to start teaching kids how to be better drivers.
Teaching adult Indians to better follow road rules will require a substantial investment in policing and automated monitoring systems. However, teaching the next generation the importance of road rules can be done far more easily.