09 February,2009 09:02 AM IST | | Surender Sharma
A city housewife is taking the battle against the madness on the road to the doorstep of motorists
Her aim is to make our roads safer by promoting Bhaigiri. Bharti Chadda, 50, a housewife has taken the campaign against road rage at the doorstep of the people. Chadda's campaign 'Road pe sab bhai bhai' has over 50,000 members now.
"I used to get very disturbed by reports about road rage cases," she said.
"However, I believe blaming the government for each and every ill is wrong. The government cannot make laws for each and everything," Chadda added.
An alumnus of Delhi University's Miranda House college, Chadda launched the campaign with her friend Vipin Suri.
"I discussed the idea with Vipin and he eventually agreed," she said.
Initially Chadda and Suri hit the roads talking to people on traffic lights and people at large. But they realized that their message did not have any retention value. "So, we decided to print stickers. It started with cars and now we are making them for all type of vehicles," Chadda said.
The duo started the campaign by pooling the money they had. Then, donations started pouring in at their talk shows at various offices including those of Resident's Welfare Associations.
They plan to make the campaign a pan-India draw. "We have some like-minded people in other states as well. They would pick up from us and start the campaign in their cities," said Suri. "In the next two months or so the campaign will be launched in Punjab and Maharashtra," he said.
Chadda started her talk shows at the Delhi airport where she used to interact with taxi drivers. "Now, every day, we seek time from RWAs, schools, colleges, other institutions and offices of various private companies and encourage them to help someone if he gets injured in a road accident and not to react violently if some accident happens," said Suri. After awareness lecture, the duo distributes 'bhai bhai' stickers make the participants take a pledge not to violate traffic rules and help the accident victims.
Within six months, the campaign has started showing results. "It feels so good. When people call me saying, someone knocked down his vehicle. But he did not hit him as he remembered the pledge," said Chadda.
