Bloodbath in Peshawar

 In Childhood I had heard-‘Brave die once, Cowards die everyday’.

Consequent upon hearing, seeing and sensing the uncalled for tragedy on T.V. concerning brutal and inhuman killing of 141 persons including 132 innocent children ,I suppose, either my faith in what I heard will be further deepened or I will be too shocked to react. In either of the situations, one will  have to zero down to blaming the most recent or emerging kind of suicide ,that is ,the fearsome cult of suicide bombing(S.B.) ,This has relegated to the background, the earlier lethal threat of small arms. So far, one knew from Emile Dukheim, the Father of Sociology only three types of unnatural acts leading to self killing-Egoistic, Altruistic and Animistic.

Why I wish to flag or underline S.B. because, of the six terrorist 'martyrs' involved in lynching 141 Persons and injuring over 200 in an Army School in Peshawar, majority may have taken a vow, once upon a time, to give up their lives for the sake of the so called Jehad. In Peshawar scenario, to my limited understanding ,it was not Jehad espoused for over 35 years or so, rather, it was supposedly an act of reprisal or revenge against the same brethren, led once by Maj.Gen.Nasirullah, who gave birth to the dreaded Talibans in Afghanistan. Z.A.Bhutto was the P.M. of Pakistan at that turning point of history.

As per available indications, upgraded and more focussed operations by Pak Army against the Taliban elements in Pakistan launched on 15th June 2014 seem to have led to this unthinkable brutality. Talibans, on their part are reported to have claimed displacement of more than 15 Lakh persons triggered by the most modern weapons, including indiscriminate use of Drones and F-16 planes.

When one learns about wards of Army officers getting separated in Peshawar prior to being butchered, it unfortunately reminds one of some parellels in our own country, when Sikh terrorism was at its peak and foundations were being laid systematically and religiously for the renewed terror attacks in the name of 'liberation' in the State of J&K.

What a time to choose? It has happened within a few hours of terror attack in Sydney and less than a week of Malala of Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi of India being conferred with Nobel Peace Prize jointly. The duo, incidentally fought for the child rights. Malala, in particular, may have more burden on her feeble shoulders now in view of the fact that she herself had escaped narrowly another dastardly Taliban attack in the past. No wonder, within a few hours of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claiming the responsibility of eight explosions leading to deaths, Malala called it senseless and cold-blooded.

The TTP, an umbrella organisation of 13 Islamist militant groups led by Maulana Fazlullah is based in north-west part of Pakistan. It has a sizeable following along the Afghan border in Pakistan. They  indulge in anti –Pak Government activities, insist on their own interpretation of the Sharia and do not fail in carrying out activities against the NATO led forces in Afghanistan. Allegedly it has close ties with Al-Qaeda going to the extent of sharing money and bomb makers with the latter, apart from training and planning together.

  Is it a case of being paid by one's own coins? Or will such unfortunate episodes unite once again the like-minded individuals all over the world to take an unbiased resolve to suppress this kind of drug inspired or instigated terrorism all over the Globe.?

One should not be saying but it is a felt, recorded and well documented fact that when innocent persons were targeted for years by the same very religious fanatics in India (and threat persists in some form or the other) ,educated and so-called sophisticated folks in other parts of world would not go beyond expressing a few routine words of sympathy or condemnation. Now that known and unknown places in the developed world and our own neighbourhood are falling prey to such a senseless violence every now and then, the World at large, seems to be waking up.

  

Our friends in the neighbourhood, despite facing recurrent threats, do not refrain from following double standards, nonetheless. While Talibans in Pakistan are being shown their worth lately, people like Hafiz Saeed, having hand in numerous terror attacks including infamous 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, are also being sheltered ,encouraged and possibly worshiped. Same is not happening at the time of a spineless Government. It has been the part and parcel of their unquestioned national policy for decades. In order to hide your failures on the Human Development front (say widespread Polio), is it 'wise' to take recourse to primordial loyalties and perpetuate further, the ills of the system?.

In USA, some of the top liberal Security experts have even gone on record to confess that they are more alarmed and concerned after 9/11 tragedy, Needless to say, it led to more serious debates and pre-emptive steps in the name of Homeland Security. It is high time, we had at last a well coordinated sharing of information in an electronic form ,bound by a signed UN Protocol and followed up by an unbiased action against the cult of terror, rather than only eliminating a handful of illiterates and heavily indoctrinated youngsters or their elderly guides and Think-Tanks.

Better late than Never. Perhaps one can wind up on this candid and optimistic note.

IN THE NAME OF ROAD SAFETY

Road Safety as a crucial emerging challenge is gaining momentum with the entry of several automobile giants in the huge Indian market facilitated by the rapid growth of the domestic economy. Connectivity is an important factor for which one needs well developed transport network. Unless the roads are sufficiently wide with proper drainage, support and enforcement system, growth of this sector will always come with a price, i.e. frequent instances of accidents, injuries and deaths. Thanks to loans on easy terms and avid desire on the part of young men and young couples to own an automobile, exponential growth in the vehicle population is being seen. Same, however, does not match with the required length and width of the road or for that matter, earmarked halting and parking places. To add to the mess, there is no thinking even in the metros to provide dedicated lanes for the cyclists and the pedestrians.  Majority of the vehicle owners, neither wish to pay for parking nor they have an intent to respect traffic rules. Motor vehicle licences are also issued fairly liberally without the applicant having bare knowledge of the theoretical or practical sides of driving.  To add insult to injury, courts order release of accident vehicles and errant drivers rather easily.

Pre-requisite & Pillars of Road Safety

All the three essential “E’s”, i.e. engine, engineering and enforcement, perhaps, could be blamed for the present dismal scenario. There is scant regard for the five pillars of road safety, namely, road safety management, safe road infrastructure, safer vehicles, better behavior on the part of road users and improvement in post-accident response & services. In hilly terrains, better road upkeep assumes more importance as reliance on it is total for undertaking and sustaining various development initiatives. Many countries by the virtue of negativities, have been in a position to bring down the number of accidents and some of them have successfully carried out de-congestion initiatives by amending and enforcing the existing laws. If they can do it, why not we, especially at a time when the U.N. has declared the decade of 2010-2020 as the ‘Decade of action for the road safety’ ?

Physical Space Not the Sole Parameter

The road space can not and should not be the sole parameter. Basic civic sense, habits and behavior patterns imbibed from a cultural pattern also matter a great deal. Other than Delhi, most of the metros or the emerging metros do lag behind in this regard. While in Delhi, 21 %of the space is available for roads, it is definitely inadequate in Kolkata (12%),Mumbai (10%) and Hyderabad (9%) vis a vis their large population. Even then, Delhi reports more road rage, accidents, injuries and deaths. In addition, Mumbai and Bangalore, on account of their obvious and attractive commercial and educational opportunities have already gone much beyond their carrying capacities. Moreover, these cities being linear, can not be expanded further.

Contributing Factors

If we attempt to find out the reasons of unpleasant and unwanted happenings on the road, speed, bad state of roads, continued use of defective vehicles, drunken & rash driving, fatigue and carelessness or no use of helmets and seatbelts immediately come to notice. One fatal accident occurs every 3.7 minutes in our vast country and trucks and two wheelers alone contribute to 40% of these accidents. Several sets of measures ranging from those aimed at individuals to engineering to enforcement to upgraded surveillance have been adopted and emphasized time and again but unfortunately the numbers keep on multiplying.

Dismal National Scenario

 A look at the national scenario would reveal that India’s vehicle population is growing at present at the rate of 15% every year. Same logically has a bearing on the persons getting temporarily injured, permanently disabled and dying altogether. On an average,1,42,000 persons are crushed to death in the road accidents and nearly 5,60,000 are reported injured, majority of them being in the age group of 15 to 45 years.  Setback to such a productive age group is a great loss to nation.  According to UN projections if road safety measures do not lead to minimizing the risk factor, road accidents would become third most prominent reason for death by 2020 after heart attack and depression.

Pain & Agony

Some injuries are so severe that the family has to suffer for no fault of theirs for several years, apart from unimaginable pain and agony on the part of the person concerned. The suffering is better felt rather than measured or assessed in monetary terms. Who cares, where is the monitoring mechanism, often asks the victim in the dingy clusters of economically weaker sections. In absence of dedicated accident courts, normal courts take a long time in deciding the cases and at the end of it, high and mighty get away easily. All of us have heard of the BMW case of Delhi and two cases of Mumbai, in which workers sleeping on pavement were either crushed to death or grievous injuries were inflicted on them. One popular Film Star has not been convicted even after a decade or so despite solid evidence available against him. This is happening at a time when both Judiciary and the Media are very active and vigilant and the RTI ensures better and easier access to information to the common man.

Unreliable Statistics

An analysis of the accident statistics would show that the figures collected are not always reliable as many deaths or injuries remain unreported in the rural and sub-urban areas or the small cities. According to one study, under reporting in India can be to the extent of 100%.  Railway has about 1,25,00 unmanned crossings all over the country and this alone could be a major contributor to the accidents. Poor quality of roads, non use of helmets & seat-belts and lack of adequate awareness about safety issues generally result into high rate of accidents in the remote areas.  Protection ensured to chest, heart, lungs and all the vital organs in stomach region by the seat belts is still unknown even in large cities.  Further, according to some experts, due to mushroomed growth of private clinics and hospitals as also growing culture of making claims, accident victims from the lower strata of society are invariably compelled to bear heavy expenditure, for no fault of theirs.

Post Accident Situation

Coming to post accident scene, it may not be known to many of us that the first hour after the accident is very crucial for saving the life or for reducing the impact of the injury.  One out of six persons are reported dead on the way either due to congestion on the road or the long distance to the health facility. All requisite steps, therefore, have to be taken by all the stakeholders and enforcement authorities.  Proper handling of injured persons by the trained Policemen, voluntary agency personnel etc. has to be ensured before specialized treatment begins in a Trauma Centre or hospital.  Panic, which may be natural, should be avoided.

Remedial Measures

Apart from having a comprehensive legislation for ensuring or improving road safety and restrictions on use of or higher taxes on older cars, there has to be adequate awareness on the part of every citizen for which he/she has to be suitably sensitized at the school and college levels. Drastic reduction in the use of crackers over the years goes on to prove the efficacy of the message conveyed through the school children. In Sikkim context, wherein the number of registered vehicles has doubled in just 8 years and the number of deaths and injuries(72 and 399 respectively in 231 accidents in 2013) in road accidents has also risen sharply, one can and one must create awareness about road safety through NGOs, Self Help Groups and Punchayats also, in view of their being pro-active and vibrant.

Minimum safety standards for the vehicles, roads and road users will have to be prescribed, apart from improvement in the city and highway traffic management system through CCTV or ITS, as the case may be.  In Sikkim situation, one can think of creating more No Traffic Zones on the lines of similar ones in Gangtok, Namchi and Jorethang. Many European cities have gained immensely from such an experiment due to its positive impact on the incidence of accidents and overall pollution level. Side by side, there is also a need to come down heavily on rash drivers and other traffic offenders besides raising the amount of fines and penalties.  Resorting to punching of licence in the event of proving of a traffic offence could also make a beginning in India. 

 Accidents have been drastically reduced in a vast and populous country like China in a matter of just five years, (between 2005 and 2010). Can’t we follow the suit in India or in the smaller and manageable setting of Sikkim?

To sum up, road is supposed to ensure and enhance connectivity. It should not become a medium to disconnect mankind from the world.