Road accident victims or their kin can now get a legal and psychological counselling free of cost.
Social organization Rise Up, which has been working in the field of road safety in State for over five years, started a counseling centre exclusively for the accident victims and kin on Tuesday. 17-year-old Ankita Sinha was the first aggrieved victim to be counselled at the centre. This student of class 12 lost her father, Ajit Kumar, who was an auto driver in a hit and run case on December 3, 2018.
The accident occurred at 6:50 am as Ajit was taking his daughter to school in his auto rickshaw. A car zooming past in speed hit the auto rickshaw, following which Ajit lost his life on spot while Ankita sustained serious injuries.
As she sat through psychiatric counseling with Dr. Bhoomika Sachacher, Ankita’s tears could not stop. She recalled her father, the day of the accident and the trauma their family is going through post accident.
However, after the session she seemed more relieved and happy. “I thought I was alone but I am glad to see that people are there to support me and help me through difficult time. This session has been helpful for me and I hope that other people can benefit from this too.”
Being a case of hit and run, the family is entitled to avail the road accident compensation of Rs. 50,000 which is given by district administration. President of Rise Up, Rajshree Singh said, “The girl or her family did not know about this scheme so our team of legal experts, which includes a retired session njudge, helped her understand the procedure.”
As Ankita’s father was the only breadwinner in the family, making ends meet has become quite difficult for the entire family. “We will try to provide some part time job to her younger brother who is in college or get her mother involved in some skill development activity like stitching and embroidery so they can start earning a decent living,” Singh said.
Explaining the reason behind starting this centre Singh said that post accident trauma, both for victim and their kin can be unbearable and in most of the cases they are lost about the next step to be taken. She said, “We want to help them come out of the pain and provide them some stability and help through legal process.”
Singh said that the strategy of their organization is to approach the accident victims themselves. “At present people do not know much about this centre and the fact that it can be helpful to them in various ways so we have to approach them and inform them about it,” she said. Jharkhand was among the top 5 states in 2017 to record highest number of accidents according to the data released by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH). The data shows that in 2017, 5198 road accidents were recorded in which 3256 persons were killed.