The Standpoint

NOT-SO-‘SAFE’ WEEK!

By

Karan Deep Singh

5^th June 2009

The Delhi Police launched a “Safe Pedestrian Week” from June 1^st to June 7^th to create awareness among pedestrians and motorists to be responsible road users. “Pedestrian discipline requires a behavioral shift which cannot happen overnight. By conducting these drives, we will be able to bring about a change in attitudes,” said Joint Commissioner, Traffic, S N Shrivastava.

The Joint Commissioner’s claim could have been overwhelmingly convincing till we observed a check of our own on the functioning of the Safe Pedestrian Week on Delhi’s roads. We observed the check at Connaught Place’s busiest intersections where we found that traffic policeman were not only witnessing the violations at some points but also became violators when we saw one of them rush to the other side of the road in the midst of speeding traffic on the busy road.

WE BRING YOU EXCLUSIVE PICTURES FROM JUNE 1 TO JUNE 7

While this was the condition of traffic police staff, pedestrians on the road remained unaware and highly confused. Though the officers were deployed at each crossing, they did not make any effort to inform the pedestrians or guide them to cross the road only at the zebra crossing. Large groups of people, including families, children and women kept crossing the road whenever they found an opportunity or otherwise if the motorists were generous enough to slow down.

“Nobody uses the subway, some people don’t want to for a short cut and some don’t because they have been shady places for a lot many other activities” says Dushyant Chugh, a BDS graduate. We witnessed the subway at one of Delhi’s busiest places transforming into a thriving market in the evening selling toys, hosiery, clothes decorative items, jewellery and other accessories with little space left for people to cross.

Shalini Jha, a student of DU says “I am scared to use the subway at night. It is extremely unsafe for women and if the Delhi Police wants me to use them, they must ensure our safety by deploying police personnel inside the subway.”

The communication on the part of Delhi Police regarding the observation of the “Safe Pedestrian Week” was seemingly not adequate when we spotted just a poster in the major dailies on June 1^st and a couple of more days towards the end of the week. Yvan Hutin, a French, working with the Govt. of India quipped “Oh, I didn’t know there was something like this going on” when we told him about the then continuing drive.