Aadhar Sarthi “WHEELS OF INDIA”
Replacing “DRIVER” with “AADHAR SARTHI”: In Indian mythology, sarthi means “Bhagwan Krishna” who drove Arjun’s chariot in kurukshetra and banged victory. Similarly, a driver drives us safe to the home despite all inconveniences and dangers faced while driving.
But now let us look at the problems faced by our commercial vehicle drivers despite their contribution to GDP of the country and facilitating transportation of goods, products and luxuries to us all.
Despite the huge role played by drivers in easing our daily lives drivers are deemed to be “BAD” and face social isolation and generally disregarded. They face social discrimination in the society.
Profession of a “DRIVER” is mocked by the society. Their children feel ashamed and humiliated when asked about their parent’s occupation publicly. And this is all because of the image associated with the drivers. Drivers are generally eyed as drug addict, drunker, lofar. Many times family members of the driver also face social discrimination and isolation.
They face critical physical and mental issues, many diseases, acute muscle pain and cervical pain, high stress and anxiety and premature aging.
The most important of all the problems is lack of driving education, which includes lane driving and advanced driving lessons regarding the important technologies, components and mechanisms used in their vehicles. Passengers or freight, whatever, but when commuting via buses or trucks or loading vehicle, for whole travel duration our lives and our assets are in hands of these drivers. This automatically signifies how important it is to have well trained and knowledgeable drivers. It’s matter of our lives, our assets, our GDP. One accident of passenger bus stakes 50 lives, one accident of a loading vehicle, trucks or cargoes accounts for financial loses, and loses to the country. More often, these vehicles’ health isn’t checked in the beginning.
Long halts at checkpoints and lack of support from police and locals in case of accidents. Heavy vehicle drivers are frequently blamed in case of accidents and many times face accusation, punishments and proven guilty. They face punishments even for the cases they aren’t guilty of and often their insurance claims are rebounded. This happens due to lack of legal education of insurance and driving laws. And more because they aren’t knowledgeable enough to support their arguments.
For these reasons and to improve the image and living condition of drivers in India, AFT has launched AADHAR SAARTHI “WHEELS OF INDIA” campaign. These campaigns are solely focused on training and educating drivers. The training includes five segments:
a. Defensive driving lessons
b. Advanced driving lessons
c. First aid and cpr training
d. Legal lessons regarding driving rules and regulations, insurance laws and claims and how to deal during legal controversies.
e. Mental, medical and emotional training
We intend to impact their mind through visual and animated lecture and our trained faculties to bring out behavioral change in mindset of drivers.
Aadhar Sarthi “WHEELS OF INDIA”
AADHAR SAARTHI “WHEELS OF INDIA”
DRIVERS ARE WHEELS OF INDIA AND WE ARE STANDING BY THEM AS THEIR AADHAR
“DRIVERS AT GLANCE” A SURVEY BY AADHAR FOUNDATION ON HEAVY VEHICLE DRIVERS
Road Transport plays a vital role in the economic development of a nation and is the prime mode of transport in India. It facilitates movement of goods and passengers and promotes balanced socio-economic integration and development across various regions of the country. Road transport is most significant in its share of passenger and freight transportation in comparison with other modes of transport primarily because of easy access, reliability and potential for extension of services to the remotest corners of the country.
Transport sector accounts for more than 4.85% of the country’s GVA (Gross Value Addition) with road transport accounting for 3.12% of the GVA. Roads are dominant mode of transportation in India today. They carry almost 85% of country’s passenger traffic and more than 60% of its freight. Over 2.2 trillion metric tons per kilometer of freight was moved via road transport across India in fiscal year 2017. The road transportation sector carried 67% of freight traffic that year.
Road transport is also a significant employer. The component of road transport accounts for employment of 1.3 million i.e. 8.7% of the Industrial Employment as per NSSO in 2016-17. Road transport provides direct employment in form of drivers and conductors/cleaners, booking agents, loading and unloading operations, wayside facilities, etc.
The number of registered “Transport” vehicles, both goods and passengers, as on 31st March 2017 were 22.539 million, accounting for 8.9% of total registered vehicles. In the transport vehicle category, trucks accounted for about 19.3%. The trucking industry remains in the hands of private operators and is highly fragmented and unorganized with majority being small operators. Passenger transport is in the hands of both private and public operators (State Road Transport Undertakings) with SRTU accounting for only about 8% of registered buses in 2017. Private operators are thus the dominant player in terms of transportation of passenger traffic.
The above data depicts the huge role played by road transportation in our socio-economic life. But now let us look at the problems faced by our commercial vehicle drivers despite their contribution to GDP of the country and facilitating transportation of goods, products and luxuries to us all.