This journalist turned activist’s playschool is educating children about traffic sense and road safety

Jumping the red signal has become a common sight on Indian roads. According to government data, about 4,64,910 road accidents were reported in India in 2017 alone. This means 405 injuries, and 1,290 deaths every day.

With these numbers causing concern, many organisations, along with the government, are trying to instil the importance of following traffic rules in people.

Addressing this issue is Rise Up, an organisation led by Rishab Anand, which is conducting workshops on road safety in schools and colleges.

Rishab’s playschool, called the Cartoon Playschool, teaches children about road safety and traffic rules. Since its inception in 2016, the Jharkhand-based NGO has covered 250 colleges and schools till date.

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Speaking on the same, Rajshree Anand, President, Rise Up, said,

Gradually, we thought to build a sustainable model, in the form of a play school, so that at the foundation stage of a child, we could incorporate traffic rules and sense that would help them become globally aware citizens, reports Ranchi Blog.

Besides the regular classes, the children get an insight into following traffic rules such as lane driving, using seat belts and helmets, and following traffic lights, to name a few. Further, the organisation has set up a traffic park within the school premises, where children get to understand road ethics.

Students are also taught entire aspects of road safety in a span of 36 months.

Explaining about his playschool to The Logical Indian, Rishab said,

It is a fact that what we learn during the early years of our lives, stays with us for a very long time. Prime examples being the alphabets and numbers. I realised that traffic sense is one of the topics which should be taught very early on in one’s life.

Before setting up the NGO, Rishab was a journalist, and lived in Bengaluru and Delhi. After witnessing the plight of traffic in these cities, he realised the situation was worse in smaller cities as the awareness level was very low.

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Hence, he shifted to Ranchi, his hometown in Jharkhand, to improve the situation. He initially started with a poster campaign. When the cause and his efforts started gaining traction, he, along with police authorities and city municipality, organised events to raise awareness. What started from Ranchi has now spread to four to five cities in the state.

Speaking on his future initiatives, Rishab said,

From 2019, we have also started giving counselling to people and their relatives involved in accidents. We give legal and medical counselling. Often, people involved in major accidents slip into trauma. Even for the relatives of people who die in accidents stand at risk.

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