Orientation of “Policy Influence Group (PIG)” at Bogura under the “Strengthening Road Safety Act and Civil Society Action in Bangladesh” project was held on 17th October 2024 at 10 AM at Paulbasera Auditorium. The chief guest in the orientation program was Bogra Sadar Upazila Executive Officer Feroza Parveen and Md. Mozammel Haque, Advocate of Bogra Judge Court and one of the members of BAPA Bogura District Committee presided over the program. There were 32 participants in the orientation program, including 22 men and 10 women. Project Mentor Sheikh Abu Rahat Md Masrukal Islam welcomed everyone and started the program by giving a brief idea about the aims and objectives of the project. Project Coordinator of Steps Towards Development (Dhaka) Chandan Kumar Leheri was the key facilitator in the orientation. He elaborated on the necessity, aims and objectives of the formation of Policy Influence Groups (PIG) and their responsibilities and duties.
He said, the policy influence group (PIG) is being formed for the purpose of creating public opinion through a broad group for road crash prevention and increasing public awareness at the local level to ensure safe roads by correcting the behavioral risk factors of people. They will also work to assist the government in formulating an integrated road safety law to reduce the behavioral risk of road users through the use of mass media in the prevention of road crashes. They will also take part in initiatives like organizing various campaign and advocacy programs at district level, awareness campaign activities among students and teachers in various educational institutions and maintaining constant communication and coordination with local administration, BRTA, like-minded network, journalists, political leaders, transport leaders and others concerned.
Chandan Laheri added that the PIG members will work to assist the government in enacting the Safe Roads Act. They will also be equally active in identifying road crash victims or families and helping them get the necessary health care and government grants. The members of the policy influence group will be the road crash survivors and affected family members, social workers, journalists, teachers, network representatives, volunteers, cultural workers, students and so on.
Bogra Sadar Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Feroza Parveen said that along with law enforcement, public awareness should be increased to make roads safer. Many fresh lives are lost in road crashes every year which requires joint efforts of all to prevent them. Tendency of disobeying the law among common people, setting up of stands everywhere on highways, unrestricted use of three-wheelers on highways, drivers of vehicles driving long distances without rest in hopes of extra income, overtaking tendencies and above all due to incoordination with each other it is not being possible to prevent road crashes. The time has come to bring positive changes, but it will be possible only when common people and drivers on the road are aware.
Project Mentor Sheikh Abu Rahat Md. Mashrukul Islam conducted the program and highlighted the program’s goals and objectives. Project coordinator Chandan Kumar Leheri presented the statistics of road crashes worldwide including Bangladesh. He said, according to the Global Status Report on Road Safety, more than 1 million people die in road crashes worldwide every year. That’s 2 people per minute and more than 3200 people per day, most of whom are children and earners. According to the World Health Organization, more than 30,000 lives are lost in various road crashes in Bangladesh every year, which is very shocking. In such a situation, they expressed the hope of working with various measures to reduce road crashes through this project.
Following the formation of the Policy Influence Group, a week-long action plan was adopted in October to mark National Road Safety Day 2024. Finally, the chair of the program Advocate Mozammel Haque thanked everyone and announced the end of the day-long orientation.
