Paul Pudhe? – Haat Samor! ("पाऊल पुढे? – हात समोर!")
The Campaign in a Nutshell
The Problem 😨
Pedestrians’ account for about 30-35% road crash fatalities in Pune. MoHUA’s benchmark suggests that this ratio should be <20%!
Many of these are breadwinners from poorer families…
The Solution 🔑
A technique to cross roads safely successfully reduced pedestrians’ fatalities in Angamali, Kerala by a whopping 50%! We want to reach the technique out to all of Pune.
The Plan 📑
2026-27: Students from 100 schools and their teachers imbibe this technique. It reaches the parents too.
2027-29: Reach out to other demographic groups.
Know more...
The Problem
- A large number of the pedestrians’ fatalities are people from the 30-45 age group – since they commute in the city more than other age groups.
- Many of them are from lower financial strata – since they walk more than others.
- Many of them may have sufficient insurance covers, though they are breadwinners of their families.
The Solution
We will be running a campaign in Pune – successful campaigns have 3 important attributes:
- A solution that works
- A catch phrase
- Effective outreach
A solution that works
In 2010, the town of Angamali, Kerala, reduced pedestrian fatalities by as much as 50%.
The solution that worked in Kerala can surely work in Pune too, and has a potential to save 50-60 lives annually.
A catch phrase
पाऊल पुढे? – हात समोर!
(“Crossing the road? Stick your hand out!”)
The name of the campaign itself explains the solution.
Commit it to your memory – it could save your life!
Effective outreach
The campaign will have various stages, targetted at specific demographic groups.
We begin with school children from Std 4-5-6, for 2 reasons:
- What they learn in this age sticks for the rest of the life
- They have a compelling impact on their parents, whose age group has a big share in pedestrian fatalities.
The Plan
The campaign may take 3-5 years to achieve its goal. It will be run in multiple stages.
| Stage 1: 2026-27 | Stage 2: 2027-28 | Stage 3: 2028 and beyond |
|---|---|---|
| Feb-Jun: 100 schools and 100 colleges will be enrolled in the campaign. | Expand the campaign to 500 more schools. | Expand the campaign to remaining demographic groups: Office goers, residential areas etc. |
| Jun-Jul: Workshops to introduce the technique "पाऊल पुढे? – हात समोर!" to teachers in the 100 schools. | Start engaging with 2 critical demographic groups: College students and Senior citizens. | (Further activities will evolve over time.) |
| Aug: The teachers introduce the technique "पाऊल पुढे? – हात समोर!" will be introduced to their students. | Specific activities to imbibe the technique "पाऊल पुढे? – हात समोर!" in college students. | |
| Aug-Sep: Student volunteers demonstrate the technique 'on-road' to the school students, their parents and others for 4 weeks. | Specific activities to imbibe the technique "पाऊल पुढे? – हात समोर!" in senior citizens. | |
| Oct onwards: Continuous engagement with the schools to ensure that their community fully absorbs the technique, so that a 'critical mass' is built. |
Get involved!
Rs 25,000 can extend the campaign to one school.
- CSR: Through your company’s CSR program, you can help us reach the safe road crossing technique to students from 20 or more schools and their parents.
- Individually: You, your friends and family can join hands to help us reach out to 1-2 schools.
Every drop counts! Please donate to SPTM.
Are you a good presenter? An efficient coordinator? Can you help us with any of the following?
- Convince a school / college to participate in the campaign
- Conduct a workshop for the school teachers
- Coordinate logistics with the college volunteers and the school
Do you know a managing body member of an educational institute or the Principal of a school or a college?
FAQ
Road crashes kill about 300-350 people in Pune annually, out of which 30-35% or 100-120 are pedestrians. As per ‘Service Level Benchmarks’ of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Govt of India, this ratio should be <20%.
This technique is not a ‘phoren’ concept. In 2010, the SP of Angamali, a town in Kerala, habituated people to raise their arm while crossing the roads, and that reduced pedestrians’ fatalities by 50%!
This technique is not intended to stop oncoming vehicles, but simply to make yourself more easily visible to the drivers.
Raising your arm provides you with an effective additional tool to make yourself safer, but you must take all necessary precautions, including the following:
- Do not run while crossing the road
- Be aware that a vehicle overtaking a truck/bus may not be able to see you even if you raise your arm
- Be extra careful if crossing near a turn
- Watch out for vehicles from an approaching lane
- When reaching the other end of the road, look on both sides again as there could be wrong-side vehicles coming from your right.
- Do not start crossing the road if the pedestrian signal has started blinking red.
- If you could cross only half the road and have to stand & wait on the road divider / pedestrians’ refuge, face the traffic and be alert. Do not use your phone there.
- In general, do not use your phone till you cross the entire width of the road.
While walking along a road, use the footpath as much as possible. If you are compelled to walk on the road, walk on the right so that you face approaching vehicles. Also, make sure that young children are on the ‘inner’ side of the pedestrian zone and adults are on the ‘traffic side’.
Yes, we must educate drivers so that they learn to respect pedestrians and pedestrians don’t need to raise their arm to attract drivers’ attention! But that could take even a generation. Pedestrians must fend for themselves till then.
In India, pedestrians are not prohibited from crossing anywhere. Zebras provide them an explicit right of way. That is, if a pedestrian steps on a zebra to cross a road, it is the vehicles who are expected to stop at a safe distance and allow the pedestrian to cross the road.
There are 3 major components of road safety.
- Engineering (safe infrastructure built by the Local Governing Body)
- Enforcement (of acts and rules, by Traffic Police)
- Education (safe use of the system, by people)
This campaign focuses only on the 3rd component. That does not mean the other two are less important. We are constantly pushing PMC and Pune Traffic Police to do their job better.