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One problem is that India doesn’t have things many other countries just take for granted, like clear road signs. By law, drivers are required to have ten hours of lessons, and sit a basic, practical test to get a driving license. Some States, like Delhi,

Transcript

Road and Traffic Laws in India Host: Applying for a license at the Ministry of Transport in Delhi is, especially for the uneducated, a confusing paper war. Many people end up paying to get their licenses illegally as Harman hears from some of the city’s thousands of auto- rickshaw drivers Harman: What would you have to do to get a driving license from the licensing authority? Male: There are the middle-men who do the paperwork. Male: Everywhere there are middlemen. Even if you’ve got all the papers, the work won’t be done without the middlemen. The inspector will tell you this and that is wrong and you’ll have to go back there ten times. If you go through a middleman, even without all the papers, you don’t sign anything, you just slip him some money and it gets done. Host: Practical driving tests are held on the nearby road by examiners who stand at the side of the road. Male: I’m checking to see which lane he is driving in, if he’s indicating or not. If he is in the correct lane to turn right, whatever needs to be done for the practical test, he must do it, otherwise he’ll fail. Harman: They are responsible to issue the licenses and unfortunately, I must say, they are letting loose missiles on the Indian roads. Host: Nearly three hundred new vehicles are pouring onto Delhi’s roads every day. As everywhere in Asia, most are three- wheelers and motorbikes. With motorcyclists most likely to be involved in crashes, motorcycle helmets are compulsory for motorcyclists, protecting their heads. But in Delhi, the law now exempts Sikhs and women who mostly pillion passengers are leaving them more vulnerable. And while India’s road laws maybe lax, what about people who are seen to break them? Minna Saran: The people who are not abiding by laws and rules, why aren’t they punished for it? Until there’s a human cry, they get away with it. The police said they’d never seen a worse accident than that. But where was the police? Where was the police? Where were the lights? And what has been done ever since? Host: Harman came to find out what the police are doing in response. Qamar Ahmed: The criteria which we’ve been following is that any place where three or more than three fatal accidents have taken place that gives us an alert. Harman: Why are some drivers have been as driving without licenses? Qamar Ahmed I think your question pertains most to the transport department. As far as enforcement agency on our regular checking, we check the driving license. All those who are not found with the driving license, they are prosecuted as per law. Shri Saroj Kumar Dash: We have received some complaints that some people or few people are getting their licenses without proper training and proper examination. Now we are going to introduce education of the driver particularly it must be Class A pass. Secondly, he must have training from a recognized driving training school and only then he’ll get a certificate. Host: In the absence of a national code, there are groups at the local level trying to improve drivers’ knowledge. In Delhi, the Institute of Driving Training and Research has already setup driving school arenas in two of the State’s nine districts. Ram Krishnan Parimoo: We have diluted the level at which a person can pass a test because we realized that if we were to administer international norms, not more than three percent of our existing license holders will actually be eligible for a license and that may become too high a benchmark to start off from. Harman: The training school that we visited, that is only attending to nearly .01% of the total volume of the traffic that is on our roads. So that is just a starting point you can say. That thing needs to be spread very fast all across the country. Male: What does this sign say? Male: To cross. Male: What is the zebra crossing for? Host: The State of Haryana has one of the highest rates of road traffic crashes in India. Harman’s created a special computer software package with information on the highway-code and a test for prospective drivers. Harman: We are basically designing educational content which will be used by different police units, by the public to educate themselves and get ready for the theoretical tests. Amitabh Singh Dhillon: It promises to I would say revolutionize the scene in our country because it’s very easily replicable on a standardized basis. We are hoping to very shortly replicate this in 21 districts of Haryana.