On November 14, volunteers of the National Youth Council’s road safety campaign received their participatory certificates from the Minister of Youth and Sports

According to the WHO’s ‘Global status report on road safety 2018,’ road traffic accidents lead to the deaths of approximately 1.35 million people every year; moreover, road traffic injuries are currently the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged between 5 to 29 years. In Nepal, more than 22,400 people have lost their lives in traffic accidents in the last 10 years, as specified by Nepal Police. The need for road safety has never been greater.

At the workshop with the CLCs, the Chief Election Commissioner, Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, emphasised the important role that community-level organisations can play in dispensing civic and voter education at the grassroots. “CLCs can urge the community members to cast their votes in the upcoming by-elections, teach the community the technique of voting so that no vote is invalid, and provide them with factual information so as to allow each voter to cast an informed vote,” he said.

Keeping this need in mind, the National Youth Council, under the Ministry of Youth and Sports, initiated the youth Volunteerism in Traffic Management campaign  in Kathmandu, as part of the Youth Mobilization Year 2019. The road safety campaign took off in May 2019 during Global Road Safety Week, with participants, who were posted at major traffic junctions, educating people about traffic rules and regulations. The volunteers mainly consisted of school and college students, with a few also from bus/micro bus operation committees. A total of 500 participants appeared on the first day, although only 390 completed the assigned 14 minimum hours for the 12-day campaign. On November 14, the volunteers received their participatory certificates from the Minister of Youth and Sports, Jagat Bahadur Sunar (Bishwakarma).

The road safety campaign was organized by the National Youth Council and the Metropolitan Traffic Police Office, in collaboration with WHO, UNDP, UNICEF and UNV Nepal.