India’s independence was won through immense courage, sacrifice, and a vision of freedom for all. As we near its centenary, a new freedom calls—to travel safely without fear of injury or a fatality. Every road crash fatality shatters a family, erases a future, and reminds us that nation’s progress must include safety.
In 2023, nearly 1.73 lakh people died on our roads— 474 every day. It is encouraging that recognizing this crisis, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has recently proposed a National Road Safety Mission and Road Safety Plan–2025. The aim is to cut road crashes by 50% by 2030 and reach near-zero fatalities by 2047 through blackspot removal, AI-based enforcement, stronger vehicle safety standards, and faster emergency care. The mission’s goal is to unite currently scattered efforts into a unified national movement for safe mobility.
From Paper to Practice: The Policy Imperative
Global examples show that success is possible when strong policies are effectively put into practice. Sweden’s Vision Zero and Vietnam’s mandatory helmet law demonstrate that near-zero road fatalities can be achieved when strong laws, safe infrastructure, strict enforcement, and public education work together. Sweden has reduced fatalities to some of the world’s lowest levels, while Vietnam has lowered motorcyclist deaths by over 40% in just a few years.
India, too, has the foundations to replicate such success. It already has a statutory framework in place: the National Road Safety Council and a provision (Section 215B) in the Motor Vehicles Act for a National Road Safety Board. However, the real gap lies in implementation, with challenges such as inadequate staffing, limited budgets, unclear mandates, and weak coordination between states.
Additionally, poor road planning, design flaws, and weak detailed project reports worsen crashes, highlighting the need for stronger technical standards. In fact, in May 2025, the Supreme Court emphasised the importance of road safety by directing the Centre to constitute the Board within six months, reinforcing the urgency to translate the law into action.
A credible mission must therefore constitute and fully resource the National Road Safety Board with experts and autonomy, strengthen state and district road safety bodies for on-ground delivery, create a dedicated National Road Safety Fund, mandate uniform crash reporting and cross-sector data sharing, and establish annual independent audits with a public dashboard for real-time progress tracking.
The Safe System: Engineering, Enforcement, Education, Emergency
To reach near-zero road fatalities by 2047, India must also adopt the Safe System approach. This framework recognizes that human makes error and ensures roads, vehicles, and services prevent it from becoming fatal. Consequently, it means fixing blackspots fast, slowing traffic where needed, providing pedestrian zones, and improving vehicle safety. Additionally, smarter enforcement with AI cameras, fair penalties, and rapid golden hour care can greatly improve survival.
Economic and Social Returns
Road safety is not just a transport issue but also an economic and social priority, integral to national development. Studies estimate crash-related losses at up to 5% of GDP, draining household incomes and health budgets. Fewer crashes mean reclaimed productivity, lower health expenditures, and stronger investor confidence in logistics and mobility. Socially, safer streets mean secure school commutes for children, greater mobility for women and seniors, better protection for pedestrians, and fewer families pushed into poverty by the loss of a wage earner. A National Road Safety Fund should finance these efforts sustainably, while a public dashboard should track progress transparently to keep all stakeholders accountable.
Citizen Ownership: The Decisive Factor
No policy or technology can succeed without the active participation of citizens. Wearing helmets, following speed limits, refusing to drive drunk, these everyday actions save lives. The mission should pair regulation with behaviour change through school curricula, workplace commitments, community road safety clubs, and corporate partnerships to make safe mobility a civic norm. Campaigns must be evidence-based and locally tailored, not awareness drives, but sustained, habit changing interventions.
An Independence Day Pledge for 2047
As we celebrate our hard-won independence, let’s remember that true freedom includes the right to live and travel without fear of death or injury. We must unite with the same resolve our ancestors showed to eliminate road crash fatalities. The National Road Safety Mission is our roadmap to that freedom. Achieving it will require political will, administrative clarity, and the active participation of every Indian.
This Independence Day, let us pledge to honour our heritage by protecting every life on the road, choosing safety over speed, and working for a future where no family mourns a road death. Because freedom is not just the right to move—it’s the right to arrive safely.
Authored by:
Simi T.B., Assistant Policy Analyst, and Shreni Jani, Research Associate,
CUTS and RSN Partners