Questions/Answers

In 2014 and 2015, the state of West Bengal in India had witnessed 17,441 and 17,642 accidents respectively, leading to on an average 18 deaths per day across the state. These fatalities were also showing increasing trend with increase of 5.56% in the year 2015 (6663) compared to 2014 (6293). After route cause analysis, it was found that these accidents were result of inadequate action taken on four E’s of road safety i.e. Education (citizen awareness), Engineering (unfit road and vehicle condition), Enforcement (enforcement of existing legislation) and Emergency Care (inadequate infrastructure/facilities to treat accident victims). To deal with this grim situation “Safe Drive, Save Life (SDSL)” campaign was launched on 8 July 2016 by Government of West Bengal under inspiration of Hon’ble Chief Minister of West Bengal. The main objectives of this campaign were: ▪ Promoting safety on roads by establishing Road Safety Policy and making a well-defined multi-layer Road Safety Action Plan. ▪ Developing Mechanism for systematic Accident Monitoring and designing mitigation measures concentrating on the 4 E’s of road safety. ▪ Establishing institutional mechanism for co-ordination among different stake holders. ▪ Making community,central to road safety campaign ▪ Integrating Road Safety activities with other public initiatives/programmes ▪ Making sufficient funds available for different road safety initiatives such as technology driven road safety enforcement and media campaigns. The program integrates multiple public institutions in terms of policy formulation & implementation. It also involves NGOs/social representatives across the community for coordinated and holistic approach. The action plans and stakeholders responsibilities are clearly defined and meticulously monitored on a granular level. The key outcome is that the campaign has led to 48% reduction in accidents and 40% reduction in fatalities since 2016.

SDSL is multidisciplinary programme involving Government, private institutions, NGOs and citizens dealing with the road safety. The administration addresses the issues on execution level. Chief Secretary along with senior officials reviews the performance quarterly, devise strategies and issue relevant directions. Similar activity is carried at district level committee under District Magistrate and all stake holder departments. Active involvement of citizens has been ensured to build a momentum to the programme through series of public events such street walks by Chief Minister, organizing media campaigns, theme songs and in making the campaign central to all community events and public programmes.

Though SDSL(Safe Drive Save Life) is not represented by any dedicated SDGs, it can be applied in several goals and targets, especially those related to health, infrastructure and sustainable cities, and human settlements and environment. In addition, enhancing sustainability and climate change resilience for transport infrastructure. In that way the SDSL supports SDGs 3.6, 9.1, 11.2 and 13.2. Initially, target to reduce accident fatalities was fixed to 20% by 2020, whereas state has already decreased the fatalities by 40% till September, 2019. Now state targets to achieve 0 fatalities due to road accidents by 2030. ▪ Improved stakeholder engagement. ▪ Green corridors throughout the state for quick transferring of the accident victims. ▪ Modification of all the trauma care center to Level-1 trauma center. ▪ Mandatory Road Safety Audit for all road construction ▪ Periodic Road Safety Audit (once in 3 years) on highways. ▪ Calendar for implement all the recommendations from Road Safety Audit. ▪ Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS) on all highways. ▪ Encourage electric vehicles, to control Emission levels which impact carbon-footprints. ▪ Dedicated Database on Road Accident. ▪ Regular training to improve awareness on road safety.

Social: SDSL may be the only unique initiative which has able to impact in such a way by reducing 40% accident fatalities since inception of SDSL. Budgetary support: A dedicated non-lapsable fund is constantly infusing financial support for purchase of various equipment for road safety nearly ₹ 2.5 Billion spent on Road Safety since inception. Patronage: SDSL is the brain child of the Hon’ble Chief Minister. SDSL comes under top most priority of the Government and State is committed to support this initiative in all manners. Environment: Strict pollution checking for fitness-certification of vehicles and encourage clean and green mobility across the state.

Till 2015, West Bengal was witnessing an increase in number of road accidents. This required a renewed efforts in road safety at the strategic and implementation level of the government. It was observed that enforcement of road traffic laws, emergency medical care option, road infrastructure in respect to road safety were needed to be reviewed to mitigate accidents and fatalities. Public administration was also required to be activated to design targeted awareness programmes to improve knowledge of the citizens regarding road safety. The programme, led by Hon’ble Chief Minister, is a multi-pronged approach employing specialized Government institutions for effective implementation of each aspect of Road Safety and bringing behavioral change in the citizen, towards road safety . Police Department is responsible for enforcement of road safety rules and citizen awareness programmes, School Education Department for integrating concepts of road safety in school curricula, Health and Family Welfare Department for strengthening emergency care/post-crash responses, PWD addresses the road engineering related elements of road safety. Transport Department provides the coordination among all stake holders. The outcome of concerted efforts under SDSL of all stakeholders’ has helped in improving public service delivery by the Government institutions by making roads safer.

Initiative aims to save each life with focus on the overall well-being of the citizens without any gender discrimination. The departments, institutions, civic volunteers, NGOs, executing outreach programme ensure sensitization of citizens towards road safety, irrespective of gender. State maintains an exhaustive database of women in SHGs and enrollment in schools and colleges. This database has been utilised at instances to especially target and sensitize women and school going girls towards road safety and pedestrian safety. The leadership of state, being managed by a woman, encourages women participation in such noble cause.

Target Group is government and citizens both- Key outcomes of the government: ▪ Increased co-ordination across the stakeholders due to better institutional and monitoring mechanism resulting the reduction of fatalities and accident by 40 % and 48% respectively ▪ Holistic policy formulation by the stakeholders negating any overlap leading to improved service delivery keeping safety of citizen at the center ▪ Concerted augmentation of infrastructure leading to improvement of Trauma-Care system ▪ Capacity building and outreach programme leading to better connect with citizen. ▪ Utilisation of road safety fund for automating traffic violations and more delegation of power leading to three-fold increase in road traffic safety related prosecution. ▪ Capacity building of personnel of all stakeholder department towards road safety with more training of police, transport officials and engineers Key outcomes of the citizen • Reduced fatalities due to road accidents ▪ Increase public consciousness regarding road safety ▪ A sense of ownership and faith in the government programme ▪ Participation in decision making and governance ▪ Access to safer roads ▪ Focused awareness programmes among all road users

“Global Status Report On Road Safety 2018” published by WHO report states “……cities in India have reduced traffic crashes, and through media campaigns and stronger enforcement, more cities have cut drunk driving”. West Bengal is consistently reducing the road accidents in the last 3 years. By September, 2019, accidents and fatalities have decreased by 48% and 40% respectively compared with 2016 against initial target of 20%. Different initiatives taken under "Safe Drive, Save Life" campaign is one of the major factors behind this improvement. Followings are the main steps taken- ▪ State Road Safety Council (SRSC) at apex level formed followed by Road Safety Policy and Road Safety Action Plan thereby becoming a cross-departmental programme which has been convened 8 times since formation of SRSC. Lead Agency constituted to ensure implementation of the decisions taken at SRSC. ▪ Nodal Department to monitor, coordinate and evaluate. ▪ District Road Safety Committees (DRSC) formed to implement the strategy at field level. 119 DRSC meeting held till September, 2019. ▪ The allocation for road safety has been increased from ₹ 50 Million in 2011-12 to ₹ 900 Million in 2018-19. Nearly 3000 CCTVs, 120 Red-Light-Violation-Detectors, 120 Laser Speed Guns, 150 Alcometers and other road safety related equipment have been procured to improve the road safety. ▪ 50% increase in prosecution of violations for over-speeding, signal violations, overloading etc with more delegation of power at granular level. ▪ Mandatory Road Safety Audit for all vulnerable roads with implementation of mitigation measures. ▪ Thousands of Road public outreach programme including public walking events, cultural events, drawing competition, bike rallies, street dramas, tableau etc on subject of road safety and also making it a theme in festive occasions including Durga Pooja. ▪ Road safety has been made compulsory in school syllabus. ▪ 46 Trauma-Care Centres and dedicated Trauma-care Ambulance services are providing post-crash facilities.

Designing an initiative to address 96.7 million citizens of state involving multi-department engagement: • Road Safety Action Plan and Road Safety Policy were prepared. • Road Safety Council, for execution Lead Agency and District Road Safety Committees were formed. • SDSL campaign was designed for outreach and public involvement Target audience had lesser knowledge about Road Safety: SDSL rectified this issues. Inadequate & unplanned funding: Dedicated budgetary funding with non-lapsable provision Specialisation: Consultancy services and academic institutions were involved in knowledge sharing Leadership and Vision: Active involvements of Hon’ble CM, Hon’ble MIC, Transport and the higher level officials from different stakeholders.

SDSL initiative has now become a synonym with Road Safety in Bengal. Conceptualized and launched by the CM in July 2016, aims to curb “accident fatalities” and inculcate "responsible road behavior" among citizens. Innovative Initiatives like- • Community driven activities, • Stakeholder engagement, • Awareness through different community festivals, • No Helmet No Petrol, • Driver Training Manual, • Awareness on Good Samaritan, are few of them which cemented Bengal's position for arresting growth of road accidents. West Bengal is consistently reducing road fatalities since last 3 years. Supreme Court Committee has appreciated the measures taken by the West Bengal government in reducing road accidents.

The program drew inspiration from National Safety Week launched in 2011 to spread awareness about road safety among citizens. SDSL was visualized as a continuous citizen awareness programme, rather than a week-long exercise. Gradually, SDSL was expanded to include elements beyond citizen awareness and provide a common platform for pursuing road safety related activities like- • Technology-driven Accident analysis, • Use of “Automated-Number-Plate-Recognition” and “Speed-Camera” system have been a roaring success • Identification and rectification of Blackspots to mitigate accidents and fatalities. • The government worked on social media to extend its message through digital platform. Gradually SDSL has reached a level where it inspires other states to replicate it.

Public Outreach Programme is a common initiative for any Government policies. These initiatives propagate the agenda of the government to the people at large and connect them across the length and breadth of the society. "Safe Drive, Save Life" is a similar public outreach programme of Government of West Bengal adopted for promoting road safety and reducing accidents on roads. The programme is replicable and draws its parallel from Total Literacy Campaigns or Total Sanitation Campaign programmes launched by government earlier.

Since this initiative is driven by the head of the state with clearly defined strategy, institutional set up and objectives, this model of outreach can be used for socially relevant contexts where it is difficult to involve community and to break the glass walls of different organisation to work towards common objective.

SDSL is done in a campaign mode involving Civil-officials, Police, Engineers, Health-care professionals, Subject-matter experts, Programme managers, Public representatives and Community. Around 1000 officers at the different levels of state government are involved. Apart from that Public representative at all levels are involved with workers from NGOs and civil organisation. Different departments such as PWD/Health have been guided part of their funds towards road safety. In the last three years of the campaign Transport Department has spent around ₹ 2.5 billions in road safety related works vis a vis around ₹ 500 millions in the similar period earlier.

Initiatives that makes SDSL a sustainable goal over the time are: • Strong Political Commitment with involvement of Hon’ble Chief Minister, West Bengal • Well Structured multidisciplinary institutions at the state and district level with strong monitoring mechanism. • Initial success with accrued socio-economic benefit out for each life saved. • Availability of Trained Manpower • Involvement of Citizens and Voluntary Organisation • Safe Drive Save Life narrative receiving social acceptance and it becoming a part of every government and social intervention. • Assured fund availability • Encouragement of improved Multi-modal Mass Transport System reducing unnecessary traffic congestion resulting safer traffic movements. • Introduction of clean and green mobility system across the state impacting carbon-footprints.

Yes

Initiative was evaluated by international consulting organization with renowned expertise in programme evaluation. Experts conducted literature review and consultation with related departments to develop understanding of the initiative. An evaluation framework was developed to assess impact on citizen awareness and analysis of secondary traffic related data to assess impact on reduction of road accident related parameters. Accordingly, a perception survey was conducted among citizens who were divided into 5 target age groups and results analysed based on the framework. Statistical tools were utilized to analyze secondary data and establish correlation between road accident data and road condition/traffic related data.

To assess citizen awareness, 6 indicators were considered – Positivity (perceived benefit), Attitude (perceived usefulness and ease of adoption), Reach (reach across target group), Recall (top of the mind recall), Knowledge (easily comprehensible information) and Success (bringing about behavioral change). Each question of survey was related to these indicators and a scoring system was developed to mark each indicator based on survey response. To assimilate secondary data, time-series analysis, correlation and regression analysis were the statistical tools used to understand effectiveness of initiative in preventing road accidents and reducing loss in case an accident occurs.

The 'Safe Drive Safe Life' (SDSL) initiative has brought about a paradigm shift in the citizen’s mind regarding road safety. It has also been effective in bringing change to the administrative setup and coordinating actions of various Government departments and organizations towards a common goal. The extent to which reduction in road accidents and road fatalities have been achieved under this initiative is in line with global SDG requirements. With unique initiatives like dedicated ambulance for road accident victims coupled with effective enforcement, increasing compliance and sustained effort, The State has already able to reduce Fatalities by 40% & Accident by 48% from 2016 to September 2019 & the state is on the path to achieve the mandates of Brasalia Convetion 2015. The momentum of road safety that has been brought about at the administrative level and amongst citizens by SDSL, will ensure sustainability of the initiative and continued action on road safety in the state. The state has been steadily increasing financial and manpower resources being utilized for this initiative to increase impact and reduce accident related issues in the state.

Bengal has come across a long-way in terms of Road Safety and the key tool from the arsenal, is a well-resourced and empowered Road Safety Agency – a central unit that directs & coordinates the efforts of all stakeholders and assume full responsibility on the state’s road safety outcomes. Apex body: The State Roads Safety Council (SCRS) is acting as the apex body for all policy level decision on Road Safety in this state and it is headed by the Chief Secretary. Transport Department is acting as the Nodal Department for Road Safety and SRSC is represented by heads of all stakeholder departments. PMU: A Program Management Unit (PMU), assisted by a professional agency, working directly with Nodal-Department advises on best practices and stakeholder management directly. The PMU oversees the road safety activities and reports it to the Nodal-Department and Apex Body for necessary feedback and decisions and directions. Working-Groups: A Lead Agency under the Transport Directorate and equally represented by the designated officials from all stakeholder departments acts as the working group for all policy implementations. District Road Safety Committee at the field level implements the area specific road safety interventions across the all districts headed by the District Magistrates.

The initiative has been designed keeping in mind the requirements of the target groups i.e. citizens. Departments constituting the implementing bodies interacted with stakeholders to design appropriate materials and initiatives for road safety. Followings are the details of the stakeholders responsible for implementing different initiatives under SDSL: Transport Department: While SRSC is monitoring overall initiative from budgetary assistance to Policy framework , Transport Department as Nodal Department overviews the entire initiative on behalf of SRSC, in terms of Road-Safety Fund allocation, overall monitoring and implementation. Transport Department is also responsible of vehicle certification and issuance of driving licence, and also the overloading prosecution. Engineering and Urban-Development Department: Primarily responsible for road-engineering initiatives like Black-spot mitigation, Road-Safety Audit (RSA) and implementation of the recommendations of RSA. Police: Police is primarily responsible for traffic management and strict enforcement against traffic violations. Police also conduct joint inspection with PWD for identification of Black-spot and also awareness building programmes across the states. Health & Family-welfare Department:Total 46 Trauma care centres have been developed to deal with the accident victims within golden-hour and awareness initiative on Good-Samaritan. Education: Road-Safety is being inducted as school curriculum. Awareness: SDSL campaign is observed by all sections.

This initiative played a pivotal role to achieve success in terms of arresting road-accident fatalities. Since inception, all stakeholder departments have been working in tandem with each other to achieve the objective of the initiative. Learning outcomes: • Intra-Departmental/stakeholder Coordination • Community participation for a great cause • Impact assessment through proactive audits • GAP analysis and mitigation SDSL initiative ignited a thought process for responsible road behavior across the mass and has been able arrest loss of GDP due to Road-accidents after such a positive response, the state is trying to find the answer of “Next what”? ‘’Next” is the plan to achieve Zero (0) accident fatalities through deployment of intelligent systems covering all 4Es of Road-safety — Education, Engineering Enforcement and Emergency-care including citizen participation and bringing further accountability in stakeholders with predictive accident management system based on historic data and conditions. The Government is also encouraging mass transport by introducing Clean and Green mobility(https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/11/kolkata-india-air-pollution-electric-buses/) to reduce traffic pressure and also impact carbon-footprints aligned with the Nation’s policy for Clean Environment, which is going to be the key feature of upcoming SDSL campaigns. The uniqueness of SDSL is that it has been able to impact an “integrated mechanisms for sustainable development” across the society including vulnerable sections.