CMS in partnership with World Health Organization (WHO) is implementing a media fellowship programme on road safety, which is being offered to 12 journalists based in Delhi NCR and Karnataka from Hindi, English and Kannada print, broadcast and online media.
Two media workshops and a field trip will be organised for the selected fellows to improve existing coverage of road safety related news.
The objective of the fellowship program is to strengthen journalists’ capacities to provide the much-needed boost to legislation, policies, programs, systems, enforcements and awareness through informed reporting, thereby, effectively contributing to bringing down the number of deaths and injuries on Indian roads.
The special efforts will be made to provide qualitative information on solution and data journalism.
Meet the fellows
Anvit Srivastava
Anvit Srivastava is a Principal Correspondent with the Hindustan Times in New Delhi. As a part of his fellowship, he will be working on how many foot-over bridges were built in India over the past 5 years and how much public money was invested in it. In addition to this, he will also be working on how many speed breakers in Delhi are legal and what challans, if any, have been imposed on people for constructing illegal speed breakers.
B.Raveendra Shetty
B. Raveendra Shetty is the Chief Copy Editor at Vijay Karnataka, and is based in Mangalore, Karnataka. During the fellowship, he wants to look beyond the statistics and write on the understanding of how death impacts individuals and destroys families with exclusive focus on the families and dependents of road accident victims and how it affects them. This will include emotional and socio-economic ramifications on spouse, children, parents and extended families - which will humanize the impact of accidents and enable readers to understand it in real terms.
G. Rajasekaran
G.Rajasekaran is an independent journalist based at Salem District in Tamil Nadu. After 20 years of service with The New Indian Express as Staff and Special Correspondent, he currently contributes in-depth articles for online outlet, The News Minute and also edit news reports on part time basis for Afternoon evening English daily. As a fellow of the Road Safety Media Fellowship, he plans to report on how prepared are law enforcers and manufactures in implementing helmet rule for children, the efficacy of the computerised video surveillance systems in policing traffic violations in smart city Coimbatore and investigate connection between road accidents and the increase in sporty bikes.
Kishor Dwivedi
Kishor Dwivedi is a Senior Reporter with the Press Trust of India in New Delhi. During his fellowship he will be working on an analytical story on how new age technology like Artificial Intelligence is used to save time at traffic lights can pave way for a pan-India replication of the model, an analytical and data-driven story on why people choose to violate laws – which would highlight if there are any shortcomings in infrastructure planning, and a story on major causes and preventive measures on accidents in Yamuna expressway by talking to experts and the expressway-managing authority.
Mamuni Das
Mamuni Das works as a Senior Deputy Editor with The Hindu BusinessLine and is based in Delhi. As a part of her fellowship, she will attempt to assess how the new law of Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Act, 2019 has changed the life of road accident victims and behavior of insurance companies. She would try to understand the medical, legal and social aspects of this through analysis of aggregates and a case-study approach.
Prachi Salve
Prachi Salve is a Senior Policy Analyst and Research manager with IndiaSpend for the last 7 years. She currently works on Gender, Health and economy. As a part of her fellowship, she will be working on reasons for state wise discrepancy in road accidents and deaths due to road accidents, whether other laws have an impact on road safety for example looking at alcohol ban’s impact on the road accidents due to drunk driving accidents, and on policy learning through international comparisons and see what is working elsewhere in the world and what can be adopted for India.
Pradeep Dwivedi
Pradeep Dwivedi is a Senior Reporter with Dainik Jagran in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. He covers and writes on issues related to NHAI, Delhi-Meerut Expressway, NCR Planning Board and developmental projects. As a part of his fellowship, he will be working on road safety rules and symbols.
Purnima Singh
Purnima Singh works as a Principal Correspondent with Times Now. During the fellowship, she will be working on how potholes and bumps on roads may cause back pain and cervical problem, the hazardous impact of construction dust on people’s health, and on underage driving accidents being on the rise in Delhi and NCR, which will include research, reporting, data and Interviews of doctors from government and private hospitals of Delhi and NCR.
Ravish Ranjan Shukla
Ravish Ranjan Shukla is a Special Correspondent with NDTV India, based in Delhi. During the fellowship period, he will be writing on various issues including Yamuna Expressway fatalities and causes of such events, Delhi being the most dangerous city for pedestrians and the accidents related to the use of mobile phones while driving.
Sangamesh Menasinakai
Sangamesh Menasinakai is a Special Correspondent with the Times of India, based in Hubli, Karnataka. During the fellowship period, he will be working and focussing on statistics of official road breakers and illegal road breakers, edging of the road, open drainages at the road, and awareness on IRC standards.
Sharad Pandey
Sharad Pandey has been working as a journalist for the past 20 years. He is currently working in National Bureau at Dainik Bhaskar, Delhi, where he has done many people centric stories that were appreciable based on Road, Transport and Highway. As a part of his fellowship, he will be working on the design of roads, violation of transport rules and killer highways.
Umashankar Mishra
Umashankar Mishra is a science journalist working with India Science Wire - a New Delhi based science news service. As part of the fellowship, he would focus on the status of trauma health services in India. He would also attempt to explore how Indian roads make pedestrians, cyclist and two-wheeler riders the most vulnerable group of road users. Using data journalism techniques, the stories will bring out the challenges of making Indian roads safe.
