Mumbai students spread sober message

With lenient punishment being too soft a deterrent to curb incidents of drunken driving, a bunch of college students are hoping to use the power of information through an awareness campaign in Bandra to urge teenagers not to drink and drive.

At a time when mass campaigns have drawn the attention of the nation's youth, a five-member group of media students from St Andrew's College, Bandra, has taken up the cause against drunken driving.

The campaign which will begin on August 29, will initially restrict it efforts to locations in and around Bandra. However, students are hoping to give the campaign a wider reach through a website where others will be encouraged to take up the cause and promote it in and around their localities.

Ria Bhavsar, a third year mass media student who is part of the group, said, "There are several issues in and around our locality, but we feel very strongly about drunken driving cases, because though it has real gruesome effects on victims, the punishment is very lenient and the accused often get away easily. So we thought awareness is the only way to curb such incidents and launched Dead End, an awareness campaign against drink and drive cases."

Ria further added, "The name of the campaign itself suggests the gruesome effects that a single case of driving drunk can have on involved parties. Hence we have decided to put across these effects before people to alert them that if they do not pay attention or ignore traffic guidelines, they could be one of such cases in the future."