Situation
India has experienced rapid motorisation and consequently an accelerated increase in road fatalities. With more than 150* million registered vehicles on the roads and over 130,000* people killed every year, India has one of the worst road fatalities rate in the world.
In response to the unacceptably high road toll, India has implemented a body of road safety best practices including national speed limits, drink-driving and helmet-wearing laws, and seat-belt legisation – although enforcement of each is low.
Many of the initiatives already implemented have focused on promoting road safety in the commercial sector.
(*WHO 2015)
GRSP activities
Activities
Advocacy:
Supporting advocacy for the Road Transport & Safety Act (RTSA) and Good Samaritan Act (GSA); Supporting implementation of state level drink driving policies.
GRSP supports civil society organizations to advocate for policy change to support the implementation and enforcement of road safety regulations.
Grantees:
GRSP currently supports six grantees to advocate for passage of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, aimed at improving the existing legal provisions for road safety in India.
Road policing:
Strengthening road policing in Mumbai to enforce drink driving laws and helmet wearing.
GRSP works with the Mumbai Traffic Police and other enforcement agencies to build capacity of police officers to strengthen enforcement.
Programmes
The grants programme supports projects to develop and deliver high-impact, evidence-based interventions designed to strengthen road safety policies and their implementation.
Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS)
The programme works with countries at the national level to strengthen road safety legislation, and with cities at the city level to implement proven road safety interventions.
Road user groups
Children:
With around 186 300 children under 18 years die from road traffic crashes annually, it is unacceptable that some countries still do not have legislation regarding obligatory usage and set safety standards for child restraints.
Commercial drivers:
Commercial drivers cover great amount of distance on daily basis and are prone to multiple risk factors due to the vehicle type, conditions on the road and the often the objects that they transport. GRSP dedicates a lot of attention to this road user group because of the impact they have on road safety situation and surrounding road users.
Risk factors
Members Collaboration
IFRC engagement
| Website | Carrying out RS activites | Interested in expanding RS work |
| Indian Red Cross Society | Yes | Yes |
National laws
Lead agency: Department of Road Safety, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways
Speed limit law
Motorcycle helmet law
Child restraint law
Drug-driving law
Drink-driving law
Seat-belt law
Mobile phones while driving law
Crash data
Annual road fatalities
207,551*
Fatalities per 100K pop. per year
16.6
Population
1,252,139,596
Estimated GDP loss
3%
Registered vehicles
159,490,578
Income group
Lower-middle*
Source: WHO Global Status Report on Road Safety 2015
*World Bank
India news
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30 July 2013
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