What are the right practices to follow so that Road Safety becomes a part of our fundamentals

Thanmai: What do you think we can do to change that? So is it going to be like the education system needs to incorporate these things or are there other things also that can be done retroactively to maybe help change that? Pankaj: So I clearly see that there are different things to be done to address this problem. And first and foremost is education, education at all the levels. It is not just about education in the school. Today if we look, I have two small kids and their level of understanding of what is a signal and what is a zebra crossing is far better than what adults in this country know about. And a lot of people actually they know, but they don't follow because there is a serious behaviour issue. Now if you look at it from a safety lens, what happens if you do something wrong again and again, and if the consequence — whatever you have been told that if you cross the traffic signal you might meet with an accident — but 100 times you do, 100 times you survive, it becomes a thought process. The thought process of crossing that signal without having any consequence gets further strengthened. And you feel that it's okay to cross the signal or jump the signal or cross the zebra crossing or do anything which is not acceptable. What is required? Education at all the levels — whether it is at the administration level, at the education institution level, or at the corporate level, societal level. I think there is a mass education required. And we can take a cue out of what happened in the last 14 months from Corona. Corona is a problem which every single person on this earth has faced. Within few weeks, every nook and corner of the country came to know about what is sanitization, what is masking, what is social distance. We had never even used sanitizer outside of hospital. But within a month, you saw how sanitizer sales picked up. So we have to take a cue out of what happened with Corona and the same thing has to happen with road safety as well. Thanmai: All the stakeholders come together — right from government to local governments to media to education institutions, corporates, society. Pankaj: I don't think this is a bigger problem than Corona. This certainly can be addressed. First thing is to sensitize people. The moment they are sensitized, solutions are all in front of us. The solutions will be easily adaptable if people are sensitized to the need. If I understand that I need to wear a helmet even if I'm going to buy milk 200 meters away from my house, then nothing is preventing me from doing that. It will all start happening the moment society and people across the country are sensitized to the subject. Thanmai: I also feel at this point, considering how large a population is and the economic status of various people that comprise our population — there are a lot of folks who are still at the physiological state in Maslow's hierarchy of needs. When the battles are for daily survival — food, shelter — the other things like safety are not really top on their mind. So I think it's also important for people to take a step back and be more aware of ourselves, our surroundings, and how responsible we are of the people around us. It goes into the realm of mindfulness. That goes a long way towards reducing accidents and increasing safety. Pankaj: I totally agree, Thanmai. It is easier said than done. It's a large country. But it will all start from education. Education does not really mean education in the formal manner. It is similar to what we did with Corona — every single person has to be sensitized. This is a country where a large part of the population is still under poverty and dependent on daily wages. Even then we had locked down the whole country. That was the need of the hour. Right now we are losing about 160,000 people every year, 430 people every day. I think the time has come when the whole country has to come together in fighting this pandemic. Integration of various stakeholders will be required — education, enforcement, engineering — all these four E's have to come together and work in tandem so that we address this endemic once and for all. Thanmai: Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. Thank you.