The third Sunday of November is marked worldwide as the Day of Remembrance for accident victims – those who lost their lives, or injured, or have been affected by road traffic accidents.

This year. the WDR was today, 20 November.
Tomorrow is Aru’s 26th birthday.
We decided to mark these days by holding a junction event near the Ulsoor Police Station on the busy Old Madras Road in Bangalore, to spread the message “Safer Roads, Safer India”.

Thirteen volunteers participated in this event. In the run up to the event, the volunteers made slogans, discussed the nuances of those slogans ( What does it mean to say “You are the key to your safety”, or “Safety Never Takes a Break” or “Safety First” ). Posters were designed around these slogans to get the safety messages across in an impactful manner. Do take a look at the posters below. They speak a lot for the work done by these young volunteers.

As advocates of safety, the children were cautioned not to do anything unsafe. The posters were to be displayed ONLY to the people who were halted at the junction, and not to distract any drivers in motion.

Bhumi and Ananya also made a card thanking the Traffic Police for their contribution to this cause. The activity was started off by presenting the card to the police of Ulsoor Traffic police.

The children displayed the slogans and educated the public on road safety. The people who followed traffic rules were rewarded with chocolates. The volunteers got a sense of the impact they were making when people stopped at the lights, or when people removed the helmet from their arm and strapped it on. They urged those not wearing helmets. They gently told people who were stopping on zebra crossing.

Our success story is that these young volunteers were able to make people promise to do their bit, and did so with confidence, humility, and poise.

The youngest participant, Atharv Faldessai, all of five years, designed and painted his own poster and stood along with the volunteers for an hour doing his bit. Another success story today is that five-year old Atharv knows the five cardinal road safety rules, and proudly told us that his father always stops the car to the side of the road when he uses the phone.

The foundation wishes to thank
* Ipsita Basu for participating and encouraging us.
* Anusha Chowdary from UL for joining our event.
* Mr Abhishek Goel, DCP (East) for prompt permission and encouragement.
* Tushar Kapila, fellow grantee joined our cause, and came to encourage us.
* Shriya, Gauri, Bhumi, Anoushka, Ananya, Abhishek, Raghav, Arya, Selvan, Ngancho,Prakash,Nitish and Vivek for their creativity, enthusiasm and effort to imbibe the values, and spread the message.

Thank you so very much! You have been our strength.
Also many thanks to all our friends and well wishers who have stood by us and the Foundation.

Sharing a few photographs of the event.

A road  safety awareness session was conducted by the volunteers of The Arundhati Foundation on the 4th  November 2016 at St Meera’s School, Ulsoor . 

The volunteers Mr Tamil Selvan, Biswajit Mondal, Vivek J, Nithish AR, Arunkumar K, Prakash Rao Ezra, and Ngachnso, used a novel way to spread the message. They used the medium of mime to enact skits. No words were spoken, but it was a very effective way to get the message across to the audience. Students, from classes six to ten, watched in rapt attention, as the skits made them aware of the rules of Road safety.  

This mime was followed by the prize distribution for the Drawing Competition organized on Oct 20.

Mahalakshmi K, Diwakar Parihar and Vanitha P S won the first, second and third prize respectively in the senior category.  Serena, Joshua Sridhar, Abhishek took the respective honours in the junior category.  

The prize winners were gifted vouchers to buy books of their choice. Rs. 1000 for first prize, Rs. 500 for second prize, and Rs. 250 for the 3rd. The drawings were so good that we also gave four consolation prizes in each category! 

I must say , there is a lot of talent in our country. We just need to look around and point the young minds in the right direction. 

We are very happy that these  children  made efforts to read and understand the core problems on Indian Roads. We have also encouraged them to discuss these matters with their families. 

Through this program, we were able to reach 700 students. 

I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to Mr Irfan Khan, Principal of P U College, Ms Sabiya  Begum, Ms Selva Kumari and Fahmida Begum the co-ordinator, Principal and Vice-Principal of the school respectively. 

Sharing photographs of a memorable morning along with the winning paintings. 

Oct 1 : Following up on our session on Sep 10, we are very pleased to welcome the second batch of student Volunteers from St Meera’s PU College.  It is extremely heartening to see the response of these young, sincere children wanting to make a difference. Joining hands with our first batch, the team conducted the second Road Audit. We picked the Sai Baba Temple Road, and Cambridge Road in the vicinity of St Meeras which is of interest to the children.

This time, we were very happy to have Ms Anusha Jaishankar coach the team on how to conduct an audit and record the findings.  Anusha herself is an avid advocate of Road Safety. She runs Positive Strokes, an NGO which encourages good road behavior. And she also works with CoRPS (Concern for Road and Pedestrian Safety) which works in Road Safety.

The children noted various aspects : the traffic intensity – cars, two wheelers, buses, pedestrians; the state of the road and the footpaths; the signage on the street and its visibility; whether zebra crossings are required / visible; the factors creating challenges at the junction; the mix of shops, markets,offices, and public places like temples/hospitals that can affect the flow of traffic. And they came up with their suggestions for improvement.

Here is what Anusha had to say about the activity
“The road safety volunteers of The Arundhati Foundation were students or residents of Cambridge Road. Under the able guidance of Dr. Shubhangi, Mr. Sanjay, Mr. Vijay and Ms. Sandhya, fifteen volunteers spent the better part of a Saturday afternoon meticulously noting down ground realities on Cambridge Road and Sai Baba Temple Road using the CoRPS Road Safety Audit. This activity helps CoRPS star rate roads in Bangalore categorizing roads as unsafe, moderately safe and safe roads.

The expected outcome is two-fold. One, these young citizens start to notice road issues that they were otherwise turning a blind eye to, and knowing that they have the right to ask for change. Two, they realize that safety is their responsibility. To this end, it was heartening to see the volunteers take in problems and come up with possible ways to address these problems.”

Thank you dear Anusha for encouraging these young citizens. Thank you YSA and UL for helping the foundation help groom the young citizen of young India. After all as the demographic data shows, we are one of the youngest nation in the world! Youngsters are our greatest resource. If they are educated well, given solid values, and pointed in the right direction, I have no doubt that we can indeed be a nation of miracles and perform miracles.

Sep 6, 2016

Safer Roads, Safer India “Classrooms with a Cause” Program is focused on enhancing road safety in India and has been conceptualized by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and Youth Services America (YSA) together. TRAX is acting as the manager for the project.

Today, The Arundhati Foundation received a teaching grant under the aegis of this program to lead 25 volunteers below the age of 25 on a Road Safety Project. For a young foundation, it is an achievement and a moment of pride.

It has been exactly two years since the day Aru came home one last time before her accident..it’s a painful day. I would like to take this as a sign that Aru tells us that she is with us in spirit, guiding us on a mission of spreading awareness on Road safety .

Thank you, YSA and UL. Above all, Thank you, Aru.

The Arundhati Foundation is lucky to have so many well wishers. Today, I would like to Introduce Mr. Shanmugam to all of you.

Mr Shanmugam has a tailoring shop on Cambridge Road. He has donated five 25 litre empty water cans. We “modify” these water cans to make them into dustbins which we install on the roadside to collect dry waste. These cans draw inspiration from TERE BINS which we had installed as a part of launching of VIKRAM program last year. Unfortunately, the TERE BINS were stolen because these were re-enforced with metal rings and metal can be sold as scrap.

Mr Shanmugam can easily sell these empty cans for atleast rupees 50 a piece. Yet he chooses to give these cans to us so that we can use these to replace the TERE BINS. Contrast this behaviour with the well educated people working in offices in the commercial side of our building. These young folks not only smoke in public, but also throw burning cigarettes into these plastic bins. It doesnt take a rocket scientist to know that plastic burns. So each time a bin burns, Mr Shanmugam gives us a can.

Just goes to show that it is the attitude that matters and not just “education”
It also shows that one need not be rich an famous to support a good cause.

On behalf of the foundation we thank Mr Shanmugam for his generosity. It is people like you who make a difference!.

On 16 July, we did a session at Indo-US MIM, Dodaballapur.  It was extremely well organized.

Safety as a value is ingrained into the culture of the organization and they live it everyday on the shop floor. We urged them to extend the same to the roads.

We have reworked our presentation. A video from the Kolkata police has been added, the statistics are presented with more impactful graphics, the order of slides has been changed, and the presentation is more crisp now with the core message built around the 5 elements of the pledge.

We think it had some impact – and we were extremely touched by the gesture of the Indo-US MIM team who stood up and took the pledge along with us.

Thank you, Manoj Kabre (Vice President – Sales & Marketing at Indo-US MIM Tec Pvt. Ltd) – you have been a true friend of the Foundation, helping us spread the message.

And Thank you, Avinash, the designated Safety Officer,  for the efficient organization and the wonderful collage.

I had written a letter to the Hon Minister Shri Ramalinga Reddy with statistics, observations and suggestions regarding accidents pertaining to KSRTC and BMTC buses. I am grateful that the Hon Minister took time to go through it.

Sharing this reply with all friends of the foundation.

This letter was sent by the official concerned with the division which looks after accidents.
I am thankful to The Hon. Minister.
Thank you Sir

***

In continuation of your mail dated 25.05.2016 we deeply regret for the loss of invaluable life of your daughter at Vellore in a road accident on 9th September 2014. We are proud that a foundation has been started in the name of The Arundhathi Foundation (in memory of Dr Arundhati Sanjay Tambwekar).

​The following are the measures taken by KSRTC to prevent accidents and educate the crew.
a. Best vehicle maintenance practices are adopted to improve the safety aspects in operation of buses.
b. The selection process of drivers has been streamlined to ensure the selection of qualified and experienced drivers. Earlier the minimum qualification of drivers was 7th Std pass, whereas now, minimum qualification is 10th Pass.
c. The minimum age limit of drivers for the appointment in KSRTC has been raised from 21 to 24 years.
d. Electronic driver testing track is now used : extremely transparent system with more objective and no discursive, no role for manipulation, quicker than any other system. First of its kind in country. Driving test are video graphed.
e. The newly selected drivers are imparted necessary training about safe driving before sending them on schedule duties.
f. The drivers who have attained 40 years of age are made to undergo eye vision test once in every 2 years compulsorily.
g. Depots and line checking staff have been supplied with Breath-Analyzers to conduct surprise check on drivers.
h. Drug addict drivers are subjected to undergo de-addiction programme, which is a unique programme among State Transport Undertakings to avoid drunken driving.
i. To improve driving comfort buses are provided with ergonomically designed seats. To reduce driver-fatigue, power steering and synchromesh gearbox are being provided in the buses. The power steering avoids skidding of buses.
j. In mofussil services, the drivers with 5 years of accident and default free services are being awarded with Silver Medals and those with 15 years of accident and default free record are being awarded with Chief Minister’s Gold Medal, Cash reward and Cash Incentive every month.
k. For driver’s comforts upgraded crew rest rooms are provided at all the depots and major bus stands
l. For Night services & long distances routes are operated with fixed drivers and vehicles.
m. In order to refresh and to alert drivers between 01.00 am to 05.00 am for about 15-20 minitues rest is provided at 12 identified checkpoints in various sectors.
n. All type of vehicles are fitted the speed governor. Which are periodically checked by Divisional Mechanical Engineer.
o. Accident prone places are identified and same is displayed in the depots for the information of drivers.
p. The drivers found fully or partially responsible for fatal accidents are being placed under suspension immediately besides taking Disciplinary action.
q. The drivers with bad driving habits and accidents record are identified and deputed to the Drivers Training Institute for refresher courses regularly.
r. Action has been taken to display Emergency Exit signage’s inside the bus, the conductors have been advised to address the passengers about the usage of emergency door.
s. While booking crew for night service and long distance routes sufficient rest will be provided before sending them on next duty.
t. Only Senior skilled drivers who are imparted with rigorous training and qualified by Volvo Company are selected for operation of high end buses.
u. The Technical Staff maintaining Volvo buses have been well trained Volvo Company from time to time besides Volvo buses are maintained under supervision of Volvo Engineers.
v. Two fire Extinguishers are provided in Volvo buses for emergency fire hazards & the crew is trained to operate them
w. KSRTC buses are provided with emergency Doors/Exits for usage by passengers in case of emergency.
x. Information to the travelling public in Volvo buses regarding the operation of Emergency doors, First Aid Box, Roof Ventilator, Fire Extinguisher etc., which are provided in the bus. These information is also provided through video show at the beginning of the journey in the bus.
y. Banners are displayed in the major bus stations duly mentioned prohibiting carrying of explosives in the buses of the Corporation.
z. Road Safety day is be conducted once in every month.