Sustainable and Safe Mobility | Call for Action

Road safety is both a health and development issue of concern. Road accidents are a human tragedy which involves high human suffering and monetary costs in terms of untimely deaths, injuries, loss of potential income, etc.. Many factors contribute to road accidents including, quality of roads and infrastructure, lighting and signage, emergency services, road and traffic management, driving behaviour, etc. Road traffic accidents are amenable to remedial action. However, road safety is no accident. It has to be well thought out and planned with consensual and coordinated actions. The Chamatkari Chashma session on Better Vision and Safe Roads, calls for collaborative action to dramatically reduce road accidents by multiple methods including increasing vision services and correction for drivers and allied transportation workers. We will be doing this by bringing together corporates, practitioners, experts, advocates and enthusiasts from public, private and social development sectors, focused on safe and sustainable mobility across India. Our primary focus will be on accelerating progress towards SDG 3.6, keeping the secondary focus on broader SDG 3 (health and wellbeing). We plan to do this by increasing access to eye health services, raising awareness of the importance of clear vision, sharing evidence of impact, advocating for policy reform and encouraging stakeholder cooperation. We hope this session will enable us to capitalise on the intersectionality of various efforts taken in this space and advocate the prospective impact that can be achieved through small behavioral changes. Everyone is a road user in one shape or the other. By encouraging safe driving in a few million drivers, we touch the lives of millions of road users.