McDonald’s comes up with a recipe for kids

Manika Gupta

McDonald's has joined hands with the Delhi government to spread the message of road safety amongst school children cutting across all sections of the society. This initiative is timely as in the last 10 months 1,461 school children died in road accidents, all of them while in school or while travelling to or from school.

Says the CEO of McDonald’s India, Vikram Bakshi: “We believe in giving back to the communities we serve. McDonald’s is now going to broadbase its initiatives on safety series which includes road safety, pool safety and reading programme.”

He adds: “Thousands of school children across Delhi use buses to commute and it is important that these children reach their homes and schools safe.”

Adds Rajeev Talwar, special commissioner, transport, Delhi government: “The initiative has basically come from chief minister Shiela Dixit’s office following the increase in road accidents involving school children and will be a part of the Bhagidari programme.”

The joint initiative will involve a series of programmes in schools to inculcate the basics of road safety. As part of the programme, McDonald’s will be presenting a set of copy labels for distribution in schools, followed by distributing stickers directly to schools as also through the McDonald’s outlets.

As part of the campaign, the roaming ‘Ronald’, the icon of McDonald’s will go from school to school spreading the message of road safety in a fun atmosphere. Says Mr Bakshi: “Next year McDonald’s will increase the base by going to the weaker sections of the society.” He admits that so far the stress has been on public schools.”

The Delhi government on its part will conduct special programmes for conductors and bus drivers. It is also contemplating giving cellular phones on each school bus. Tie-ups with Airtel and Essar are already in place for this purpose, says Mr Talwar. “A responsible person—a teacher or a senior student—will carry a mobile phone and in the event of an accident toll free numbers will be provided to them,” he adds.

The Bhagidari Citizen-government partnership programme of the Delhi government involves bringing together elected representatives, government functionaries and the common man to collectively participate in governance, identifying and solving community problems.