Do Road Accidents Affect India's GDP..!?
It has been reported that the cost of road accidents in india is affecting India's GDP. The World bank has said that india is spending more on the high number of accidents that occur in India. Although the number of accidents has increased worldwide, the cost of accidents and accidents in india is very high. Road Transport minister Nitin Gadkari said India's road accidents are "more dangerous than the Covid-19 pandemic". A study on road accidents in india said that 20,554 lives could be saved in india every year by preventing accidents.
It has been stated that speeding, drunken driving, and failure to wear helmets and seat belts are the causes of accidents, and 13.5 lakh road accidents occur every year worldwide, 25% to 40% of which could be prevented by following some rules. The study found that 20,554 lives could be saved by limiting speeding, and 5,683 by encouraging the use of helmets. Similarly, the study indicated that 3,204 lives could be saved in india if seat belts were used.According to a 2020 report by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, a total of 1,31,714 people died in road accidents, of which 69.3% of deaths were due to over-speeding i.e. 91,239, 30.1% were due to not wearing a helmet i.e. 39,798 and 11.5% were due to not using seat belts i.e. 26,896.According to a World bank report, india has the highest number of road accident victims in the world. It is a shocking fact that india accounts for 11% of the global deaths in road accidents even though india has only 1% of the world's vehicles. According to a World bank report, about 4.5 lakh road accidents occur in india every year, and 1.5 lakh people die out of them. Also in this report, 'India ranks first in road accident deaths and injuries in the world. With 1 percent of the world's vehicles, india accounts for more than 11 percent of all road accident deaths. india experiences 53 road accidents every hour. A person dies every 4 minutes. About 13 lakh people died and 50 lakh were injured on indian roads in the last 10 years.According to a World bank report, accidents cost Rs. 5.96 lakh crore or 3.14% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In another report published by the World bank in 2019 titled 'Road Safety Opportunities and Country Profiles for Low and Middle-Income Countries, india received Rs. 12.9 lakh crore or 7.5 percent of the country's expenditure.A study by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways put the socio-economic costs of road accidents at Rs 1,47,114 crore or 0.77 percent of India's GDP. Minister Nitin Gadkari aims to halve the number of accidents in india by 2024. india has signed the Brasilia Declaration on Road Safety, the second global high-level conference on road safety held in Brazil. Countries aim to halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road accidents by 2030.