5,000 college students join hands to make Mumbai roads safer

Two Wheels One Life campaign promotes road safety amongst college students

India CSR News Network

MUMBAI: Akshay Kamble of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar College of Commerce and Economics, Wadala, was declared winner in the short film making category of the Castrol powered Two Wheels One Life road safety campaign run across 106 colleges in Mumbai. The competition was part of Castrol India’s initiatives to drive road safety across the country.

Castrol India, supported by United Way Mumbai, has launched a special community impact initiative – United for Road Safety (URS), to educate and sensitize youth about road safety across the country.  Besides the Two Wheels One Life programme, the URS campaign also includes safe riding skill training for youth and a train the trainer programme for two-wheeler riding trainers.

Till date over 5,000 youth have been positively impacted through these programmes. The Two Wheels One Life campaign designed to actively engage and educate college youth in responsible and safe riding practices was run with the strong support of National Service Scheme (NSS) Cell of Mumbai University.

Over 250 students participated in the intercollegiate competition held under the Two Wheels One Life campaign. The competition included four key competitive activities including street plays, poster making, short film making and pledge wall making.

The grand finale of this Two Wheels One Life competition was held at Guru Nanak Khalsa College of Arts, Science and Commerce (Matunga) and was witnessed by eminent luminaries like Milind Bharambe (IPS), Jt. Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Mumbai; Satish Sahastrabudhe, Additional Transport Commissioner, Govt. of Maharashtra, Arvind Doshi, Chairman – National Safety Council – Maharashtra Chapter, Prof. B. S. Bidwe, Program Coordinator – NSS Cell, University of Mumbai, Rashmi Joshi, Chief Financial Officer and Whole Time Director, Castrol India Limited and Jayanti Shukla, CEO, United Way Mumbai.

Commenting on the event and Castrol India’s association with road safety, Ms. Rashmi Joshi, CFO and Whole Time Director, Castrol India said: “Safety is a core value at Castrol India and our goal is to ensure that everyone who works for and with Castrol India, goes home safe every day. Through these kind of programmes, we are sharing our learnings with the wider society and by training youth, our aim is to contribute to safer roads. Through programmes like Two Wheels One Life, Castrol India’s endeavour is to inculcate safe driving behaviours from an early age. As part of our efforts to drive road safety, we plan to have several other road safety programmes across various sections of society.”

Giving away the prizes, Milind Bharambe (IPS), Jt. Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Mumbai exhorted the youth to be careful whilst riding bikes. He said, “Someone cares for your life more than you yourself and those are your loved ones at home. When an accident happens, it impacts not just the person in the accident but entire families. So don’t let the accident reach your home. Be cautious and be safe.”

On winning the top prize, Akshay Kamble from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar College of Commerce and Economics, college said, “It is indeed a great feeling winning this competition. The guidance and training we received under Castrol’s road safety programme has been amazing. Road safety is the need of the hour and one should be really cautious while riding or driving. I would like to thank United Way Mumbai, Castrol India and the mentorship provided by the teachers and principal of our college for organising such an educative campaign.”

Whilst Akshay received a cash prize of Rs.50,000/- for his short film winning entry, several other attractive prizes like riding gears and accessories, iPod, tablet, Go Pro camera and wrist watches were also given away across various categories.

Two Wheels One Life campaign was launched on 6 February 2017. Over the course of the last few weeks, the team set up Road Safety kiosks and conducted edutainment activities in 14 colleges across Mumbai, sensitising over 3500 youth. Innovative edutainment activities were carried out at the kiosks, engaging and educating students about the need for safe riding practices and sharing information about the same. The activities included demonstration by professional bikers on safe riding skills, use of alcohol impairment goggles to demonstrate how it feels to ride under the influence of alcohol, customized snake & ladder game on the theme of road safety, etc. The campaign extended to traffic junctions in the college neighbourhood where the volunteers interacted and sensitized bikers on importance of safe riding. This activity was done under the guidance of the local traffic police and RTO officials.