Did you know that in India, 17 people die in road accidents every hour? A little wreck on the road and a little disobedience of rules may not harm you but might take someone’s life instead. Therefore, it is extremely important to obey the conventional traffic rules and not violate the regulations.
To make violators and residents of Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, understand this better, Superintendent of Police, Mr. Jimmy Chiram opened up roadside `pathshalas’ (schools) where he is sensitizing people to obey traffic rules and drive with safety.
In an exclusive conversation with Indian Masterminds, Mr. Chiram talks about his ‘Pathshala’ in detail.
ROADSIDE PATHSHALAS
Talking about his posting, Mr. Chiram joined the position in October and realized that almost everyone here violated traffic rules and regulations due to which over 600 people in Itanagar were killed in road accidents since 2016.
“I found it alarming as we are a small population and 600 deaths mean a lot. I understood that it is necessary that we should have some kind of understanding of rules and regulations to reduce the fatalities in the city,” Mr. Chiram told Indian Masterminds.
Therefore, the IPS officer of the 2013 batch began the awareness drive by launching ‘Roadside Pathshalas’ as a program to spread traffic consciousness in people and sensitize them about traffic violations.
PATHSHALA. PUBLIC. PRESENTATION – THE 3 P’s
The Pathshalas have a simple concept. The SP has set up different areas right beside the road for the Pathshalas wherein he invites the public and people driving on the road, along with the violators in groups of 30-40.
Further, he shows them a presentation of about 10-15 minutes, through which he makes them understand the traffic rules that they should follow.
“We show them the presentations through LCD monitors. We also have posters, data, traffic offenses, and the kind of challans that can be imposed on the violators,” Mr. Chiram told Indian Masterminds.
THE PRESENTATION
Talking about the presentations, the Superintendent explained that the presentation that is shown to the violators displays the statistics of road accidents in the country as well as the world. The death rate is too high in the nation which is displayed to the people.
“Itanagar itself has faced 77 deaths in a year! We show such statistics to the people. Moreover, we show them what activities violate the law and could prove harmful to them, such as not wearing a helmet, more than two people riding on a two-wheeler, overloading of vehicles, drinking, and driving, etc. We show them what consequences can this bring and how many challans they may have to pay if found violating these rules,” stated the IPS officer.
Furthermore, he also educates them about good driving – which lane to drive on, how to change lanes, how to take U-turn properly, and a few symbols and signs denoting road safety rules.
THE PROGRESS
Mr. Chiram launched the initiative on March 15th, 2021, and takes two-hour sessions every day, in various locations. He is covering all the four police stations under his charge and has conducted six sessions with around 800 people till now.
Talking about the effect of the Pathshala on people, the officer states, “As per our observation, we can see that more people have started wearing helmets on two-wheelers and the number of violators has reduced by a bit.”
Mr. Jimmy Chiram’s Roadside Pathshala, it goes without saying, has turned out to be a big hit in Itanagar.
