First rehabilitation center for accident victims in a month

NEW DELHI, January 17: For a year now, the Delhi Traffic Police, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and an NGO, The Coalition for Rural Empowerment, have been working out the details of a rehabilitation centre for road accident victims. The plans have now been finalised and by the end of the month, the city will get its first rehabilitation centre for road accident victims.The New Friends Colony building from where the centre will operate has been provided by the Slum and JJ Department.

The project revolves around the fact that 78 per cent of accident victims in Delhi belong to JJ clusters. Most of them are cyclists, hawkers and labourers. A study done by the NGO in collaboration with the traffic police indicates that the age group of accident victims extends up to 37. Also, in nine out of 10 cases the victims leave behind young widows and minors.“The families of these victims are left to fend for themselves,” says Sreerupa Mitra Chaudhary, chairperson of The Coalition for Rural Empowerment. “An accident generally claims the life of the only earning member of a family. Further, the compensation they get is very little and in most cases it comes very late.” The rehabilitation centre hopes to help these families tide over their misfortunes. The centre will not only be a hostel for the families but also provide 24-hour trauma and counselling services, conduct workshops for widows and organise job-oriented vocational training.

The organisation has tied up with a number of MNCs to provide the widows and their children jobs. “We have got written commitments from companies like Domino’s and Pepsi,” says Chaudhary. “They have promised to accommodate the people we train in their companies. So we will go beyond just training the families. We will make sure they get jobs”.