This case in question exhibits how personal whims dominate important decision making in organisation overlooking the process and system. The CEO, Harish, hired Atul himself to handle Supply Chain Management (SCM) at Artemis Retail Holdings. SCM is a crucial function in an organisation where efficiencies have to be built in to save huge inventory costs. It requires specialisation in warehousing and logistics. Atul was unproven for SCM function but Harish still brought him as he had known him well before. The action reflects that Harish’s decision making was dominated by his personal likes and dislikes. Atul was strong in execution and did a great job in the new role at Artemis. Harish, without discussing with anyone, announced change in Atul’s reporting relationship, whereas his actual intention was to sack Atul. On being questioned by Rassal and Madhur, Harish kept on changing the rationale for such a decision. The reasons which he gave in writing could not hold any water, as Atul could defend himself with proofs. It is possible that Atul’s rejecting the quality of Elfa’s packaging might have upset Harish. Though Atul did justify his decisions with proofs. Finally, Harish gave the rationale of Atul appointing vendors with suspicious background and known to him personally and got the support of President Madhur for sacking Atul. Organisation structure is like the backbone of a company; it has to be thoughtfully developed in sync with business strategy to achieve business results. Hence, organisation structure should not be changed on the basis of the incumbent’s strengths and weaknesses or their performance or their relationship with their bosses and subordinates, as was done at Artemis. Within a month of Ashwin’s joining, Harish was so pleased with him that he wanted him elevated as Director, Operations and head the JV with Gevore, where Ashwin worked earlier. One month is too short a period to assess a person who is new to the job and the organisation. This too portrays Harish’s impulsiveness. Rassal’s approach of handling the issue post facto was also found to be wanting. His attempt at analysing his CEO was quite aggressive. For HR to be involved in such resolutions, the HR manager should actively seek alternate professional perspectives to manage sudden structural changes. The role of HR is largely advisory. The final decision has to and will be taken by line functions only. Though Harish apparently had prejudices, Rassal’s line of questioning could have been milder instead of probing the CEO’s position itself. Rassal appears to be using the benefit of having known Madhur prior to joining Artemis. This is reflected in his overpowering rather than empowering demeanour and it’s rather Madhur who counsels him to adopt a professional tone and gesture. Even though Madhur must be recognising that with vendor handling, vulnerabilities do arise, posing serious doubts about the incumbent himself, but had to hastily agree to Harish’s decision without getting an enquiry conducted. He could not afford his CEO’s chagrin or loss of face. We see a chaotic ride of whims and emotions driving people’s choices here. To avoid such repetition, the President should get a detailed process drawn out for 1) Organisational restructuring and 2) Setting up an enquiry system for handling such sensitive matters before passing a verdict, in future. Restructuring in an organisation should be done in consultation with the HR team. Job overlaps and gaps have to be carefully examined and removed. Each position created should always have a well-defined job description and key result areas. The recommendations of appointments and of creating a new job layer should also have a clearance from Board or the lead of the organisation. An organisation structure is successful when it builds seamless and effective functioning between positions at all levels. This case is atypical where at one end seniority and at the other end, integrity of an employee is questioned. A meticulous investigation helps balance relationships and can bring some insightful findings, resulting in fair decisions. The writer is a management philosopher mentoring both start ups and established enterprises. He was associated with LG India as its COO for over 15 years. (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 20-10-2014) tags: magazine, magazine 20 october 2014, case study, y v verma, finance, corporateThe Whimsical Stakes Build seamless and effective functioning between positions at all levels This case in question exhibits how personal whims dominate important decision making in organisation overlooking the process and system. The CEO, Harish, hired Atul himself to handle Supply Chain Management (SCM) at Artemis Retail Holdings. SCM is a crucial function in an organisation where efficiencies have to be built in to save huge inventory costs. It requires specialisation in warehousing and logistics. Atul was unproven for SCM function but Harish still brought him as he had known him well before. The action reflects that Harish’s decision making was dominated by his personal likes and dislikes. Atul was strong in execution and did a great job in the new role at Artemis. Harish, without discussing with anyone, announced change in Atul’s reporting relationship, whereas his actual intention was to sack Atul. On being questioned by Rassal and Madhur, Harish kept on changing the rationale for such a decision. The reasons which he gave in writing could not hold any water, as Atul could defend himself with proofs. It is possible that Atul’s rejecting the quality of Elfa’s packaging might have upset Harish. Though Atul did justify his decisions with proofs. Finally, Harish gave the rationale of Atul appointing vendors with suspicious background and known to him personally and got the support of President Madhur for sacking Atul. Organisation structure is like the backbone of a company; it has to be thoughtfully developed in sync with business strategy to achieve business results. Hence, organisation structure should not be changed on the basis of the incumbent’s strengths and weaknesses or their performance or their relationship with their bosses and subordinates, as was done at Artemis. Within a month of Ashwin’s joining, Harish was so pleased with him that he wanted him elevated as Director, Operations and head the JV with Gevore, where Ashwin worked earlier. One month is too short a period to assess a person who is new to the job and the organisation. This too portrays Harish’s impulsiveness. Rassal’s approach of handling the issue post facto was also found to be wanting. His attempt at analysing his CEO was quite aggressive. For HR to be involved in such resolutions, the HR manager should actively seek alternate professional perspectives to manage sudden structural changes. The role of HR is largely advisory. The final decision has to and will be taken by line functions only. Though Harish apparently had prejudices, Rassal’s line of questioning could have been milder instead of probing the CEO’s position itself. Rassal appears to be using the benefit of having known Madhur prior to joining Artemis. This is reflected in his overpowering rather than empowering demeanour and it’s rather Madhur who counsels him to adopt a professional tone and gesture. Even though Madhur must be recognising that with vendor handling, vulnerabilities do arise, posing serious doubts about the incumbent himself, but had to hastily agree to Harish’s decision without getting an enquiry conducted. He could not afford his CEO’s chagrin or loss of face. We see a chaotic ride of whims and emotions driving people’s choices here. To avoid such repetition, the President should get a detailed process drawn out for 1) Organisational restructuring and 2) Setting up an enquiry system for handling such sensitive matters before passing a verdict, in future. Restructuring in an organisation should be done in consultation with the HR team. Job overlaps and gaps have to be carefully examined and removed. Each position created should always have a well-defined job description and key result areas. The recommendations of appointments and of creating a new job layer should also have a clearance from Board or the lead of the organisation. An organisation structure is successful when it builds seamless and effective functioning between positions at all levels. This case is atypical where at one end seniority and at the other end, integrity of an employee is questioned. A meticulous investigation helps balance relationships and can bring some insightful findings, resulting in fair decisions. The writer is a management philosopher mentoring both start ups and established enterprises. He was associated with LG India as its COO for over 15 years (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 20-10-2014)
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Jahnvi desai looked up as the door opened and a harried, bloodied Gaurav Rana walked in. “You look bad,” she said. “ What happened?”Gaurav: ...a truck driver I tried to save. This country is a challenge ... That entire Kashiram Dhoni Road is riddled with potholes. I drive at snail’s pace, but the rest of the world flies....!Gaurav, who worked with Jahnvi at Sylos Partners, a company law advisory firm, had been involved in an accident as an unwilling bystander. “There was a truck and a cyclist before me,” he began, “and innumerable potholes. At one point, the cyclist got ahead of the truck and instantly skid on a pothole, fell and was hit by the truck! The truck driver ran to help the boy but the people on the street grabbed him and beat him to pulp.... “Gaurav knew it was no fault of the truck driver. Stopping his car, he ran and wormed his way into the crowd and ended up taking a lot of the blows... “How is it his fault?” he shouted at the angry crowd. “The truck driver remained in his lane all through. That cyclist was weaving between lanes and skidded on the pothole. How is it anybody’s fault?”Onlooker: But he should have seen!Gaurav: Seen what? Seen the pothole and called out to the cyclist and told him to watch out? How about that the cyclist took chances riding in the lane for heavy vehicles, whereas he should have stuck to the cyclists’ lane? Or, how about you go find your local corporator and ask him why the road in his jurisdiction has potholes for two months? For how many years have cows been sitting in the middle of the street causing traffic jams? ... What? Cow is our mother? Oh, God!a bruised, wounded Gaurav now dabbing ice on his chin, said to Jahnvi, “Who do you go to? The corporators are never seen, cyclists don’t believe in road rules, ... the road administration blames the PWD; cows and elephants weave between traffic, somebody else blames somebody else.That evening Gaurav was called back to the police station to write out a statement. Since the tea boy had come with tea, Inspector Rohit Karnik offered him one too, and they sat on the verandah wall of the thana and talked. Karnik felt sorry for the cyclist. “Young boy, must have been precious to his parents,” he said.Gaurav: You realise he was careless. He should not have been on the heavy vehicle lane. There were cops there but no one bothered to correct him.Karnik: I see that everyday. But we cannot do anything. Yesterday, a little urchin girl came under a car. There is this whole gang here... they sell balloons, toys and what not at the signal lights. They walk randomly, run between traffic... the road cops say nothing. That car driver has been taken to the cleaners by the gang... I am fighting it, decided to be witness.Gaurav: What? Serious?Karnik: Of course, yes. Either the road user behaves himself or the cop does his job. Here, we have a free-for-all. Cops are sluggish, and users treat the roads like an inheritance! Tell me, who tells people on the road how to behave? How to drive, how to walk, when to cross? We have no jaywalking laws that are implemented. Raised pavements between two lanes are dividers, not for pedestrians... but people run over them, trip and fall... cars screech to a halt, bang into other cars, then, there is a free-for-all.Gaurav: And drunk driving? They become revenue sources no...?Karnik: Not always. We have many good cops, don’t forget, yet, almost always the offer comes first from the driver. I think their licences should be impounded! Read Analysis By Arnab BandyopadhyayRead Analysis By Piyush TewariRead Analysis By Manjul Joshipura break-page-break Talking of licence, that truck driver you were protecting, guess where he learnt to drive? He learnt as a child, sitting on his uncle’s lap, during his interstate rides... (Then he made a quick call to ‘Joshi’ and said) I have asked my cousin Sriram Joshi to join us. His insights are so sharp... He is a road cop from Mumbai... very senior...Gaurav: Then let me invite my colleague Jahnvi too. We keep researching legal-system user behaviours and are trying to establish that your affluence has nothing to do with your respect for the law. This is what we have seen in the ambit of Company Law, where breach is only made to look like strategy and hence gets a fine halo. Really... We are a ridiculous people with no respect for anything.Karnik: Respect is an emotion of the literate-rich. The poor merely survive, Mr Rana... here, have one more tea. That tea boy pays his fees with this money... Yes, the poor... so they learn to drive free of cost — from relatives, from cabbies, from friends...Then, there are driving schools that are run by people who have not learnt driving formally. Same kind... they promise you pucca licence.. where did you learn?Gaurav: WIAA, my father is ‘Hitler’. We cannot do anything that is illegal, you should employ him...Karnik (laughing): Yes, we need people like that because there is nobody enforcing our innumerable laws sincerely. (And Joshi arrived.)Joshi: The real problem is population. And bullock carts and baraats continue to take traffic space. In what other country does the groom ride a horse in peak traffic? Forget that, what about your own sense of logic as a groom? People don’t think! You always need a law to rein you in? Our people can’t think. Because our education system does not train us to think, but to use trick! What does the groom have to say for why he is on a damn horse in the thick of Bhuleshwar traffic? ‘I am getting married, you guys can wait...!’See, if law enforcement is strict, then that will amend behaviour to some extent. But the law that governs enforcement is weak and archaic —the Motor Vehicles Act, which only concerns itself with motorised road users, completely ignores pedestrians, cyclists of whom we have thousands, children, handcart pullers, cycle rickshaws! There is nothing in the law to regulate them or protect them!Gaurav (now joined by Jahnvi too): Does the law regulate the elected corporators? If a city’s roads are a mess, who is responsible?Joshi: I don’t know... but I know that there are many ‘participants’ in an accident; Karnik was telling me about the cyclist’s accident. People beat up the lorry driver, he said. Whose fault is it? The pothole? Is it the truck driver’s training quality? The cyclist’s ignorance of road behaviour and weaving between lanes?There should be a law, not just mere rules. India does not have any kind of road-code with a legal backing, We have many prescriptions and guidelines... nothing mandatory.Gaurav: When you say there is no law for the pedestrian, if a pedestrian meets with an accident he cannot sue anybody?Karnik: There is no accountability. A pedestrian has a right only to compensation in the event of death or injury.Joshi: Forget all that, there is no law that protects children! Twenty children under 14, die every day in India in just road accidents. There are no statutes to protect children, only Supreme Court guidelines for school buses. So, there is really no law...Jahnvi: All this is very depressing. I was reading about Kuldeep Singh’s deposition in the Geeta Market road accident. That was such an unnecessary accident! Who placed those road blocks right at the point where a vehicle will turn? That is the real culprit.Joshi: See, the people responsible for placing road blocks are different from the ones who design road administration. The latter will issue instructions and the execution could be well given to casual labour! Absence of training and audit are causal factors in mishaps. A casual labourer has not even sat in a car, how is he to know the logical placement of road blocks?Jahnvi: Talking of audit, how do we know if a road is built and managed right? Is there a requirement to audit the roads after construction for both logistics and quality?Joshi: There is, but only as a prescription, not as a law. A road should be audited also at the design, construction and at the running stage. There is also no agency today that can do such audits. The audits are being done by the same agency that built the road — hence it is a big eyewash.Gaurav: Karnik mentioned road user behaviour. Whether we have systems or audits, we can at least hold every road user responsible for value-based behaviour, isn’t it?Joshi: Not without ensuring that his antecedents are perfect. Road acci-dents are correlated to the quality of drivers we put on the street, and that quality is driven by the driver training system and the driver licensing system. Do you know that our laws do not make driver training mandatory to get a licence? Like Kalulal, your truck driver, you can learn from anybody and still get a valid licence! Many don’t have valid birth certificates and a 16 year old was found driving a tow-away truck! Read Analysis By Arnab BandyopadhyayRead Analysis By Piyush TewariRead Analysis By Manjul Joshipura break-page-breakThere is no law regulating the functioning of driving schools, no prescribed curriculum, no certifying their trainers, nothing. In the rest of the world, drivers’ training is a key factor. Here, we have jugaad! Many of the driving schools trainers are self-trained. They have come up the untrained system! Will you let your child be taught algebra by the dhobhi?Karnik: Why, they even guarantee you a licence when you join. It’s a joke. You don’t have to really go to the licensing authority and pass any test. You can have the licence home delivered for a certain price.Joshi: So, when two things that are so critical to safe, sensible driving are fractured, how can you expect good road conduct?Okay, tell me, do people send their driver for an eye check-up? Do you know if they are of sound mental health? We are a jugaad nation. Absolutely no regard for the law and propriety. Now, examine the organisation structure: the RTO is under state government, while enforcement comes under the Home department. How can there be accountability divorced from responsibility?Gaurav: Actually it gets worse. As you speak, I see that licensing is under state government, training under transport department, enforcement under Home department, and road engineering comes under PWD, or state highway corporation, national highways under NHAI, the urban design under the ministry of urban development. Good Lord...!Jahnvi: What will be good is if all these can come under one apex body... all as stakeholders to delivering road safety with accountability... Gaurav, see the Company Law is not state-driven, it is a national law and is equally applicable no matter in which state you are registered. In much the same way, a road safety law should be created and should be applicable across India as one law. Instead, today they are all working in silos....Joshi: Okay, good. Take the road user conflict. If you notice, the left most lane on our roads is used by the buses and the cyclists — the biggest motorised transport and the smallest and most vulnerable transport sharing the same space! In that lane you also have pedestrians walking because there are no sidewalks! This has led to many accidents. Who will you hold accountable?Karnik: Then, the vehicle design. The base models of most brands do not have many safety features. The Aloysius Spectra (Geeta Market accident) was without airbags! Or take that SUV accident in Karnal, the vehicle had airbags which burst!Joshi: Crash testing would not have been done 100 per cent! Aisa kaise ho sakta hai!Karnik: What is that?Joshi: A human dummy is fitted with some 200 sensors and placed in a car and the car is crashed at specified speeds. Then, the dummy is checked for nature of the spinal, abdominal and head injuries, even death. But I have been told there is no vehicle crash testing in India. Some brands that were taken abroad to do a crash test failed the crash test at 56 kmph as well as 64 kmph. That is why the Karnal SUV accident was bothersome for me. It seems there are no controls over what is being sold here.Karnik: Cars are also being sold without anti-lock braking system, EBD, (which varies the braking pressure on each wheel), many don’t have seat belts in the back. These base models are what the common man buys when he is making a shift from two-wheelers to cars!My complaint is with marketing the cars as ‘with safety features’ as if they are an attribute! To enable sales, safety features are sold as optionals! Safety is a part of the car system. How can you offer it as an add-on for additional price? Why is the government not coming down on such manufacturers? So, now add to your diversity, vehicle engineering is dealt by the Ministry of Heavy Industries!Jahnvi: Wow! They are offering you safety as a feature, not as a necessity, not as your right, not as their duty to fit the cars with?Gaurav: Wow, I never realised how all these are core to road safety. Imagine, the simple licence can be the biggest killer!Joshi: Absolutely! And licensing should include covert behaviour checks on a new licensee. Such as, does he use the mobile phone while driving? I am ruthless on such drivers! Arre, you need to have maturity to drive a car. It is not a status symbol! Owning a car is a responsibility. You have to have respect for the man on the street! I think there should be probation of a year before licence is granted and a licensee should be deemed a learner during probation!There is a lot the law has to do. There should be one regulatory body that pins the causes of road accidents and fixes the inefficiencies and sub-optimalities, which make it compulsory for training schools to be accredited to the Indian Automobile Association, which sets standards for vehicle design, standards under law for road behaviour, compels helmet wearing for all, makes it imperative for pavements to be built and kept free of vendors, impounds licences of intoxicated drivers and mobile users... there is a lot... you need a Sebi kind of regulator! There is no other way...This is the concluding part of the trilogy on road safety law.Meera Seth(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 06-10-2014)
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The trilogy of cases — with a sampling of the experiences of Sabari, Shantum, Kuldeep Singh, Idris and, more recently, Gaurav Rana — has exposed the weak enforcement and regulation, poor engineering and traffic management, lack of interagency coordination, and deep societal apathy, all of which collectively characterise the complexity and seriousness of India’s road safety crisis. India needs to adopt a system approach to find a sustainable solution to this serious health crisis — for they cannot be resolved individually. This will require an overhaul of the institutional, financial, legal and regulatory framework for road safety management and working on all of these dimensions in a coordinated manner. Sriram Joshi, the road cop has rightly assessed, the institutional responsibility and accountability for road safetymanagement is unfortunately fragmented across several sectors of the government — from the basic licence to drive to road management, to transport services, enforcement and policing, health, education and automobile regulation, to name a few. Countries that have performed well in managing road safety challenges have established independent lead agencies that direct the national road safety effort and are transparently held accountable for delivering road safety. Successful lead agencies have been legally empowered to make strategic policy decisions, manage resources and coordinate efforts across all participating sectors of the government, the private sector and the NGO community.The global experience also highlights the importance of vision / goal setting, often driven by the highest level of the government and political structure, in steering the safety system. Globally, the most successful safety management programmes — for example, the Dutch Sustainable Safety and Swedish Vision Zero strategies — have often been driven by increasingly ambitious performance goals and targets, and accountability for their achievement. In doing so, these countries have reaped the benefit of aligning road safety vision with other sustainable development goals. For example, the well-planned provision of safer infrastructure facilities in urban areas to promote increased walking and cycling and measures to optimise vehicle speeds have also resulted in less greenhouse gas emissions, reduced energy consumption and improved physical wellbeing for the populace.In a complex multi-dimensional environment, a robust legal and regulatory framework is an imperative to specify standards and rules to achieve the safety outcomes and seek compliance with them. The international experience (for example, in the UK, Australia and Singapore) has demonstrated how the legal and regulatory framework can positively influence road user behaviour, improve the transparency and accountability framework and result in overall productivity gains for safety and traffic management functions. It is heartening to note that learning from such experiences, India is moving towards completely overhauling the archaic Motor Vehicles Act of 1988, fully aligning the road safety goals with efficiency objectives for public and freight transport, and drafting a modern safety and traffic management law. Effective road safety programmes require considerable investments to be sustained over decades. Various mechanisms for securing and allocating road safety investment funds can be identified but with some exceptions, road safety programmes in best practice countries are generally funded within public sector budgeting process. In a resource constrained environment, India should explore establishing a dedicated safety fund that could create incentives for continuous reforms in a federal government structure, help in enhancing system accountability and mobilisation of the much-needed public support.India’s road safety challenge is daunting. It will need concerted efforts by the government, civil society and the private sector; robust interagency coordination among different parts and tiers of the government, a comprehensive policy and business plan developed on data driven, evidence based, result focused intervention strategy. A steadfast vision, a unified approach, a strong independent lead agency backed by a robust legal and regulatory framework and dedicated financing mechanism can alone help India mitigate this crisis. The writer is senior transport engineer, World Bank(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 06-10-2014)
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In my last two commentaries, I discussed some of the major problems with road safety in India, but primarily from a post-accident perspective. That more than 70,000 lives can be saved on our roads each year through rapid medical care is a fact, but so is that the burden of death and disability caused by road crashes will continue to rise unless immediate measures are taken to prevent their occurrence.The crash in which Gaurav Rana intervened was caused due to faulty road engineering and not necessarily driver error; but the brunt was borne by the cyclist who paid with his life, and the truck driver, who will be paying medically, financially and legally for some time to come. Faulty road design and engineering is barely looked at as a contributing factor in road crashes, and even if it is, accountability is rarely fixed. Road-user conflict, touched upon by Joshi, was also a contributing factor in this accident. A vulnerable road-user, the cyclist, was fighting for the same space as the truck. Globally, the trend has been to segregate non-motorised traffic (NMT), such as pedestrians and cyclists, from motorised traffic. But India is yet to get its act together. Engineering and design is but one of the contributing factors to the high number of road-crash deaths in India. Another significant factor is how road-users get trained and authorised to drive. The filtration process involved in getting this authorisation, including the driver’s training system and the licensing regime, remains highly compromised. Training is not mandatory before one applies for a license and the licensing process in itself lacks the essential tenets of thorough testing, transparency and uniqueness. Adding to the problem is weak enforcement of traffic laws — enforcement remains largely human dependent and, therefore, prone to capacity constraints and corruption, and the schedule of penalties has proven to be anything but a deterrent.The cure for India’s road-crash epidemic lies in the establishment of a comprehensive framework for road safety. This framework must have two essential elements: a comprehensive road safety and traffic regulation law, and the establishment of a dedicated lead authority to ensure its enforcement and build accountability in the system. The comprehensive law must overhaul the driver’s licensing system by removing corruption from RTOs and ensuring stringent testing standards; make driver’s training mandatory but also build capacity and quality in the system to entertain the large pool of trainees that would get created; protect the most vulnerable road users including pedestrians, cyclists and children by clearly defining their rights as road-users; bring faulty road design and engineering under the ambit of law, mandate road audits and ensure strict penalties for engineers and contractors who ignore safety in design and construction; standardize crash investigation to remove subjectivity that presently exists and enable proper data collection and analysis; mandate use of technology for enforcement and ensure that States implement the mandate; and finally provide for strong penalties for rash and negligent behaviour on road. Jahnvi had noted that the various contributing factors as explained come under the purview of different agencies. For each of these agencies, road safety is not their mission or vision. For example, for the aim of PWD is ensuring there are roads for vehicles to drive on. But it is not ‘safe roads’; the licensing authorities want to deliver licensed drivers but are not aiming at delivering road respecting drivers. These different stakeholders rarely work together, and none of them are singularly focused on road safety. Also, the resources to enable safer roads are therefore not only limited but scattered. The establishment of a lead authority for road safety will ensure that a single body with legislative backing, adequate funding and a full-time secretariat can bring all the different stakeholders to work together, mandate standards for road safety, and establish a clear vision to reduce the burden of death and disability due to road crashes in India. The Supreme Court of India has called the issue of road crashes in India a “disaster”. The response to this disaster must ensure a robust and accountable framework to enable and sustain road safety in India. The writer is the Founder and President of SaveLIFE Foundation, a non-profit organisation committed to improving road safety and emergency medical care across India(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 06-10-2014)
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Road safety is a shared responsibility, as Joshi rightly points out. The economic, social and health losses resulting from road traffic injuries are not inevitable — road traffic injuries can be prevented. Experience from around the world has identified that the creation of an adequately funded lead agency on road safety is the first important step that needs to be taken to effectively tackle road traffic crashes and injuries. In India, a mechanism to address road safety management across ministries has yet to be established and leadership role and coordination are not in place. There has been no focus on achieving results in recent years despite the mess on our roads as there is a serious lack of human and financial resources in road safety within the government. Internationally, models for institutional arrangements for road safety in several countries including the UK, Sweden, New Zealand and Australia make excellent case studies for developing countries such as ours to follow. In the US, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), established way back in the 1970s, is dedicated to achieving the highest standards of excellence in vehicle and highway safety. The NHTSA leads the effort to help prevent crashes and their attendant human and financial costs. Since 1997, Sweden has been working towards its highly ambitious long-term goal to eliminate death and serious injury in its road traffic system. Though different institutional frameworks are possible, there is an urgent need to create a lead agency in the government to guide the national road safety effort. The agency should have authority and responsibility to make decisions, control resources and coordinate efforts by all sectors of government — including those of health, transport, judiciary, education and the police. It should have adequate finances for road safety, and should be publicly accountable for its actions while also engaging all significant groups — business, NGOs, the automobile industry, academia and research, experts and community groups concerned with road safety. Such agency should be an independent statutory body attached to, or functioning in parallel with the Ministry of Surface Transport, and independent of the road building agency. This agency should have a chairman of the rank of a minister or secretary to the government of India.On the other side, at the state level, institutional structures will be needed to implement policy. Formal systems need to be set up in each state and in each city to coordinate local efforts. Operational intersectoral programmes can be designed and implemented every year. These plans and interventions will take into account national priorities as well as the local needs identified through the involvement of local actors. The tasks of a lead agency will be to commission all activities regarding road safety; formulate policy on road safety; coordinate between different agencies of the government, research and academic institutions, and NGOs; compile statistics; set road safety research priorities and fund projects; disseminate information and good practice; establish safety standards for roads; and monitor the effectiveness of the road safety.The UN launched a Decade of Action for Road Safety in May 2011 and encouraged member states to take strategic steps to improve road safety nationally and globally. In response, several dozen countries announced their national plans to strengthen their road safety situations. Regrettably, India with the largest burden of road fatalities in the world, failed to respond to the call as the government departments were not clear as to which minister (health or surface transport) would lead the plan. Naturally, since we do not have a coordinated effort on road safety. It is better late than never. The time has arrived and the hope has emerged with fresh thinking of priorities with the new government. However, political intention, sustained will and a long-term investment programme will bring real road safety to India. The writer led WHO’s global programme of strengthening the care of the injured, in Geneva, and advised several countries on reduction of road traffic related mortality. He coordinated WHO’s ‘Road Safety in 10 Countries’ programme in India until 2013(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 06-10-2014)
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Jnanesh Rathod Singh, an ex-army officer, walked into the verandah of the High Court, and placing his folder of papers on a bench, aired himself before a huge industrial fan. Jnanesh was here for the fourth time in two years, for a hearing of an accident case where he was more than an active bystander. It had been six years since that day in December when he was driving his family to a birthday party. Those days, Jnanesh was with the Indian Army. A crowd of people right in the middle of the road made him slow down his car only to see a most grisly sight of a young man flung across the street, bleeding, people standing and watching from the kerb side and cars and cyclists swinging around his body and carrying on...Jnanesh stopped his vehicle, stepped out, and asked if anyone had called the police. Silent stares greeted him in response. So, he called the police and told people to back out so there was air for the injured man. When 20 minutes had passed and no cop arrived, Jnanesh asked his family to go home while he drove the victim to the hospital. On reaching the hospital, the young man died. The formalities were completed, cops asked questions, Jnanesh answered and the matter ended. Or at least for the time being. For four years, nothing happened. Meanwhile, Jnanesh got posted to the North-east.Four years later, the case came up for hearing and Jnanesh was summoned. He travelled 26-27 hours — first 8 hours by road then 14 hours by train and the rest by air, he came into Delhi, went to the court and the defence asked for adjournment for two weeks. Jnanesh had to go and come back all the way, doing the 26 hours journey, only to find that the case was adjourned yet again for two months. Today six years after the accident, Jnanesh gasped at the crowds thronging the court corridors. As he passed by a hall, he saw a proceeding going on. He visualised himself in such an intimidating dock and four people practically leaning over him. Jnanesh wondered if real courts were exactly as they showed on TV. When he turned to go, he collided into a middle-aged Sikh gentleman, with dancing eyes. In his native jolly style, he asked Jnanesh if he was the accused or the victim. Jnanesh was unwilling to engage but the man was way ahead, talking, “Myself, Kuldeep Singh, surprised by court talk?”And presently Jnanesh had told him why he was there.Kuldeep: You please do not think you did wrong by helping the victim, no matter how tough the going is. Waheguru notices everything. I believe people are good at heart, of course, people do stop and look at the accident, but they don’t know what to do. There is no external information, body or voice that is telling them what to do or what they should not do. No voice that legally celebrates the help they are giving.If anything, the simple act of helping someone bleeding, dying on the streets is criminalised by the police. If the victim dies then the liability on the person helping is much, much more — because then he becomes a suspect! Look at me! I have come again and again and again and the same questions are being asked by different people and sometimes by the same people — did you pick him up? Was he alive? How do you know he was alive? Did you take help? What did the victim say to you? How can he not have said anything? And so on. Jnanesh: I only wonder about the inconvenience of all this. I have come four times already and have to travel 26 hours one way. I am only wondering, if somebody thinks about all this. Kuldeep: Our court system is a very unfriendly. People avoid filing cases in order to avoid court processes and prefer an out-of-court settlement to save themselves a few years of peaceful living. There is a chap here, Idris. You must meet him. He has a hearing today. Hear his tale. He merely saw what happened and he could have chosen to keep out, but he got involved out of an angry sense of fair play. Idiot, now he has lost his job because he has more court hearings than working days. Read Analysis By Suhaan MukerjiRead Analysis By Piyush Tewari break-page-break I attended his last hearing and he told the court, “This confidence that what I am doing is not wrong, is destroyed when that action is humiliated, insulted by the system. This is why India is a country of growing chaos. When good is killed, bad takes charge. Damn good kiya!”Idris (when he joined them): It is not just helping an injured man, it is the insensitive accusations! Ok, so I brought the victim to the hospital, but they were saying to each other, ‘Iseene maara hoga!’ Worse, they wanted to wait till the police arrived, they demanded money for initiating treatment, ... all this is in contempt of the Supreme Court Order of 24 August 1989 (in Pt. ParmanandKatara v. Union of India) where the SC specifically stated that no hospital can deny first aid to an injured person, regardless of their paying capacity and without waiting for police formalities. Every doctor, no matter who, has an obligation to extend his expertise to protecting life. But often, hospitals deny entry and refer the victim to government hospitals! I have nothing against government hospitals, but if a private hospital is nearest why should we risk that victim’s life going further to a government one? And now you want me to shift him even if he is losing blood? Is not the hospital also fundamental to consumer safety then? I am a consumer of Indian roads and I have a right to an environment that assures me safety. This was the crux of my argument.Jnanesh: Then, by that argument, is not the court also fundamental to consumer right to road safety? I don’t mind the Rs 8,000 I spent to save Birju, the pizza delivery boy. I am happy to go and depose, no problem, but what I have a problem with is being dragged to the court for the next 6 years! Why is the governance not sensitive to a simple issue that I have to travel 26 hours to go to another city to depose? Why can the law not allow this to happen in one day in one city? If this is the experience with courts then why will bystanders stop to help?Idris: Bad luck, brother, had your victim not died you would not have had this problem. For then he would tell his tale. Kuldeep: But why should my dignity hinge on that? I have been through so many hearings where, your dignity is taken away! See, there is a strategy and a game plan that lawyers follow. You need to crack it. The lawyer’s intention is to intimidate you and he will do so successfully. You have to be hard as nails.Jnanesh: What is your crime? Why are you here?Kuldeep: Me? I was a bystander. That was my crime! I saw the car in front of me meet with an accident. Some parties to the case were trying to make it out to be a case of drunken driving. So, I went to the cop station and told them it could not be as I had been behind this car for over 20 minutes and could see their conduct. They were four people of the same group or family laughing and talking... Ok, this is what happened. I was on the highway at 10 p.m., before me was this car — an Aloysius-Spectra. We were both driving at over 100, steady, peaceful. The road was practically empty and poor lighting. Now, at one point, on the road, there is a 2-feet high divider in concrete with markings — the typical yellow black lines; left to go to Geeta Market area and thereon to the city; if you chose to stay on the right, then you continue on the highway. The Aloysius chose to go to Geeta Market, took the left and then boom! Within seconds it hit a massive wall of rocks placed there to close the exit, would you believe it! Within seconds, within seconds! I didn’t see it coming either. It was rude, sudden, like an insult. Unbelievable. One minute I was reading their ‘Baba on Board’ sticker, and grinning at the Punjabi humour, and the next minute the car was a pile of metal. I stepped on my brakes, which was a challenge because we were all doing a 100. But when the Aloysius shifted gears to swing left, I had slowed down, if not I would be with them at the Pearly Gates.Jnanesh: But the Aloysious does not have air bags... ?Kuldeep: They don’t, sadly! But the impact was phenomenal; you took the hit so forcefully because you are doing 80 at least when you swing into the diversion lane, and in seconds, the concrete rocks piled up to 3 feet high, smash into you! Also, if you read the reviews of the Aloysious, they say the quality of the metal used for the front hood is low grade and their tyres too are not skid free. I really wish I had a dashboard camera like they have in Russia; that could have recorded what happened and I would prove that it was barely 3 seconds between turning into the left slip road and hitting the blockade.Jnanesh: There weren’t any reflectors on the boulders? And why boulders really. I thought they used those orange cones. Kuldeep: Boss, my question was, why no reflectors or red light on the rocks? And air bags? How are we allowing cars without safety mechanisms?The police filed an fir — for in India, road accidents are filed as criminal cases, where the rule of evidence and procedure are far stricter. Kuldeep did not know this when he went headlong into this case. “Now, when this accident took place, I was the one who called the cops and the families from the mobile phones of the passengers. As luck went, a police patrol vehicle was in the vicinity and they arrived in 10 minutes,” he said. Read Analysis By Suhaan MukerjiRead Analysis By Piyush Tewari break-page-break Two days later, Kuldeep learnt that the accident was being made out to be a case of drunken driving — naturally by the road authorities wishing to deflect the blame. He contacted the distressed families and told them that the boulders having been placed immediately after the diversion was unfair and no one had seen it coming. Kuldeep: Arre, I forgot to tell you. Just a kilometer before the divider, there was a huge road sign that said, ‘Take left bypass for Geeta Market!’ Now you tell me? So I pointed that out to the family. But when we went there, the sign had been removed!It is crazy how the road block was placed so close to the diversion. By day, you would have seen them, but these boulders were also dark coloured. And you know Indian roads, so badly lit...! Chalo, so family complained and raised a hullabaloo. The cops said to me what proof you were there. I said brother, I called you, remember? So, they had to put me on the FIR as witness but they are not going to let me win. They have already insulted me, cast aspersions on my intention, questioned my integrity, I was reprimanded by the judge for not speaking clearly... arre, baap re!Kuldeep recounted how the defence lawyer had said, “How could you have seen the car hitting the boulders? If you were in another car, then maybe it hit something else first?” And when Kuldeep said, “No, I know it hit the boulders,” the lawyer retorted, “Oh, so, if you saw the boulders how come the Aloysious driver did not?” And Kuldeep had said that since his headlights were on he had an objective view and even a distant view — he was at least 30 feet away from the boulders. But the lawyer hammered at Kuldeep’s patience, discrediting him.Kuldeep: Now, you must ask me why it takes two years to call me again...Jnanesh: You mean, it’s not over yet? Kuldeep: Arre, kahaan! It seems later someone else filed information that those were not boulders but something else — can’t recall what term he used. So, they sent me summons again after two years! See, we have very rigorous rules of procedure but lawyers interpret it to be even more rigorous than they are. I had to be examined again in the light of this new information! It was so frustrating for me... My sister’s wedding had been fixed and I am her father, brother, mother, everything... what do I do? Run to the court or attend to my sister’s wedding preparations? But the Indian Evidence Act and the Criminal Procedure Code say that in order to have a fair trial you can question the witness as much as you wish to. Fair trial in India is given a high standing! But it is not fair to the accused or the witnesses. It is only a means to prolong, sap your energy, break your will that is all. Acha... now adjournments can happen for any excuse. The lawyer can have a family emergency or he is involved in another case where he is stuck; so most adjournments happen because of the lawyer, not because of the client.Idris: Then, there is also a mountain of paper work that can be piled onto these cases. Say, you want to file an additional document. Like that new man who came in and said those are not boulders, those are X. It is not a simple matter of handing in a paper. There is a whole damn process. You file it with an application, a technical declaration that defines what the new term is, then certified by some engineer...that means you will take time from the court, a month, to file it. Then he will say, it needs to be attested, I need another one month.What happens is, one month is never one month in Indian courts. It will be three months. Because our courts are so overburdened (naturally, since the largest community of law breakers we have) so, they cannot fix the date and say come back in exactly a month. When you go back you will realise that the date is shifted by another 2-3 weeks. And that you will have to find out on your own. There is no intimation that will come to you. There is a call list that the court releases. Often it is because there are urgent demands which they have to attend to immediately — like death row petitions, anticipatory bail, mercy petitions, so, those get the ‘urgent’ status and accident cases for instance, get moved behind. Jnanesh: How then do they expect ordinary citizens to help accident victims? For six years, I have this hanging on my neck. I have spent a lot of money... not that I regret anything, but it’s such a strain! And for no fault of mine! To be continued....(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 22-09-2014)
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The present decade 2011-2020, has been declared ‘Decade of Action for Road Safety’ by the United Nations. In India, over 1.3 lakh cases of road accident fatalities were reported in 2013 alone. If the figures released by the National Crime Records Bureau are to be relied upon, it all boils down to this: one road accident occurs every minute and one fatal road accident occurs every four minutes. Sabari’s car accident was one such serious hit-and-run case. The Supreme Court has recently, in S. Raja Seekaran vs. UOI, observed that untimely retrieval of the injured accident victim to the hospital is the leading cause of deaths caused by road accidents. Though, the Supreme Court, in Pt Paramanand Katara vs. UOI, has stated that no victim of a road traffic accident can be denied medical aid for want of completion of medico-legal or police formalities, yet, we see that in Sabari’s case, the three policemen blatantly refused to take her critically injured driver, Ambi, to the hospital, citing jurisdictional disputes.Contrary to popular belief, the law as laid down in the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 is not completely ineffective — its enforcement is. Further, official data reveal that pay scales of policemen are extremely low and service conditions poor. The police’s conduct in Sabari’s case reflects an institutional malaise that has been plagued by an utter lack of motivation, compassion and general reluctance on their part to perform their duties with honesty and integrity. Corrective measures taken to ensure accountability of the police, too, prove ineffective. In states like Assam, for instance, the Police Accountability Commission failed miserably owing to poor infrastructure, lack of funds and inadequate staffing. Deeply infuriated by this disturbing trend, the apex court has recently constituted a committee headed by judges to monitor enforcement of its directives closely.At the other end of the spectrum, we have good Samaritans like Jnanesh, for instance, who, having chosen altruism over self-preservation, ended up in what can be rightfully termed as a “costly mess”, better avoided than invited. The wisdom imparted to him by Kuldeep, another despondent witness, who reported a devastating road accident caused by poor road signage, reveals a harrowing tale of a man abused by the due process of law, not to mention the unceasing harassment by the police, repeated summons by the court to testify against the accused and the frivolous adjournments sought by crafty defence lawyers representing either the rich or the even richer, insurance companies. In light thereof, can one really rely upon the protection accorded to frustrated litigants in the Advocates Act, 1961, against malpractice committed by lawyers? Such complaints, if at all raised, end up before state bar councils which, ironically, are headed by lawyers themselves and have proved ineffective as far as disciplining lawyers is concerned. Digging beneath the surface, official data reveal what could, perhaps, be one of the reasons behind the frightful state of affairs in Indian courts and tribunals. Judicial posts in the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal (set up in each district), for instance, are almost never filled to their capacity, they lack infrastructure and official pay for the presiding officers are rarely a match to the average salaries enjoyed in the private sector. The government’s reluctance to squarely address the aforesaid institutional realities, has given birth to a disturbing culture of reluctance — be that the indifferent reluctance of bystanders who do nothing to help road accident victims for fear of being harassed later, or the indolent reluctance of the police, which bends only before the influence of the powerful, or even the unsympathetic reluctance of the institutions of justice which, instead of applauding the selfless efforts of ordinary citizens like Idris, for instance, erode any faint strains of faith in the system of justice that might have remained in the people’s hearts. Symptomatic treatment of this institutional malady, would, unfortunately, only lead to its aggravation than its cure. The way forward is to reinvigorate our institutions and systems to shift from the model of ‘command and control the citizen’ to serve and be accountable to the individual citizen. The writer is Partner at PLR Chambers and is a public policy and regulatory affairs lawyer suhaan.mukerji@plrchambers.com(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 22-09-2014)
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Imagine a jumbo jet with 380 passengers crashing every day in India, 365 days in a year. What kind of a government response or public outcry would that invite? How quickly will the case get investigated, compensation disbursed, engineering or pilot issues identified and action taken by courts? Alacritous, comprehensive and with significant expertise. More than 380 people in India are dying every day in crashes, not in plane crashes but road crashes. And despite such a monumental loss of life on our roads — close to 140,000 each year — there has been very little action to curb the epidemic. To understand what Jnanesh Rathod Singh, Kuldeep Singh and Idris have been through in this case, one must first understand the anatomy of road crashes in India. The reasons for high number of road crash deaths in India can be classified broadly under four categories. The first is behaviour of road users including rash and negligent driving, over-speeding, drunk-driving, driving under fatigue, etc. But why is the behaviour of road users in India the way it is? It is so because the two things that control the quality of drivers coming on our roads — the driver’s licensing system and the driver’s education system — are completely fractured. Driving licenses can be home-delivered in most states for a small bribe, the tests if taken are a joke, and driver’s training is not mandatory under the existing law. Even if someone did want to get trained properly, good driving schools are far and few. The second reason is pertaining to enforcement of traffic laws, which remains weak and largely corrupt. The issues here range from weak penalty structures to low capacity for enforcement to minimal use of technology to missing crash investigation protocols. Kuldeep’s case also highlights the third element contributing to growing number of road crash deaths in India — poor engineering and design of our roads as well as vehicles. Globally, countries are moving towards a “safe systems approach” in design, a philosophy that enables engineers to build roads and vehicles which account for human errorand forgive them for some of them. Roads are built with softer medians and turns and vehicles with safety features like ABS (antilock braking systems) and airbags even in their base models. India, however, remains far behind with no such standards. Finally, as seen in Jnanesh’s case, lack of rapid trauma care takes away potentially salvageable lives. If an ambulance had arrived within minutes, the victim may have been saved. But that never happened and Jnanesh had to get involved to try to save the victim’s life. And he is now paying a heavy price for that through our legal system.Good Samaritans like him are often subjected to prolonged legal hassles, severe inconvenience and intimidation at the hands of the legal system. There are no provisions in the law or in the court procedures to protect and celebrate people like him. Accidents happen for a number of reasons as cited above but it is how quickly an injured person gets care is what often determines the chances of survival. In State TR.P.S.Lodhi Colony New Delhi vs Sanjeev Nanda (2012) 8 SCC 450, it was held by the Supreme Court that “Many a times, bystanders keep away from the scene, perhaps not to get themselves involved in any legal or court proceedings. Good Samaritans who come forward to help must be treated with respect and be assured that they will have to face no hassle and will be properly rewarded. We, therefore, direct the Union of India and State Governments to frame proper rules and regulations and conduct awareness programmes so that the situation like this could, to a large extent, be properly attended to and, in that process, human lives could be saved.” No such rules or regulations have been framed by the government till date. To augment what exists, Good Samaritans like Jnanesh, Kuldeep and Idris must be encouraged and guaranteed protection from legal hassles through a Good Samaritan Law with a robust enforcement mechanism. Courts must view these persons as preservers of life and give them special treatment so that more people can come forward to help road crash victims. It is only then that we can expect to save thousands of innocent lives being lost on our roads every year.The writer is the Founder and President of SaveLIFE Foundation, a non-profit organisation committed to improving road safety and emergency medical care across India(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 22-09-2014)
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