Voice Outreach
Road Safety Advocacy
Consumer VOICE team members had the opportunity to appear before the Parliament Standing Committee (PSC) on Transportation, Tourism and Culture for oral submission on Motor Vehicle Ammendment Bill, 2016. The PSC members appreciated our suggestions on the subject. The meeting was held in the first week of November. Earlier, a joint letter on behalf of organisations working on road safety was submitted to the PSC.
World Day of Remembrance (WDR) Week
Walk for safer roads - demand for strong road safety law
On the eve of World Day of Remembrance (WDR), Consumer VOICE organised a walkathon in association with nine state partners – namely Gujarat, Chandigarh (Haryana), West Bengal, Odisha, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Bihar. The WDR Week was observed from 15 to 20 November.
The walkathons saw the participation of eminent persons from various fields including representatives from police department and political parties, lawyers’ communities, consumer organisations, media, etc. The main attractions of the rallies were students from schools and colleges who participated in mass numbers.
The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (WDR) is commemorated on the third Sunday of every November to remember the victims who lost their lives in road accidents, as also to demand for enactment of strong legislation for safer roads.
According to a report released by the ministry of road transport & highways (MoRTH), India recorded 5,01,423 road crashes, 146,133 road traffic deaths, and 493,474 injuries in year 2015. It reveals that about 1,374 accidents and 400 deaths take place every day on Indian roads, which works out to 57 accidents and loss of 17 lives on an average every hour.
Internet safety advocacy
Consumer VOICE in collaboration with Google and state partners organised state-level Internet Safety workshops throughout the month of November. The workshops were organised in Varanasi, Guwahati, Agartala and Udaipur. The main objective of the workshops was to provide training and information on online safety tools available and to share knowledge on various online security aspects.
Participants from various consumer organisations, engineering and management students, law students from various educational institutions and universities, faculty members, voluntary and civil society organisations, and common consumers attended the workshops.