Ashutosh Soti with late son Shubham Soti Pic courtesy Google
Life is unpredictable and for the Soti family it was downright painful when an accident cut short the life of a young and very humble kid, Shubham Soti in the year 2010.
A pall of gloom descended on the family of Shubham Soti when he under unfortunate circumstances lost his life even though he was not directly involved in the accident and he was just pillion riding. Sitting on a scooter behind his friend who was riding little did he know that this was his one last ride.
Unfortunately tragedy struck just half a kilometre from the home when they met with an accident. He was not wearing a helmet and that led to serious injuries.
The mishap on 15th July, 2010 shook his father Ashutosh Soti to the core and this led to the inception of what is now known as the Shubham Soti foundation.
For seven years now President of the Shubham Soti Foundation, Ashutosh has been leading a tireless campaign on his own to ensure that no life is lost and like he puts it emotionally it is an attempt to keep the memory of his late son Shubham alive. Ashutosh is candid enough to say, “ being preoccupied in my professional engagements I somehow feel I failed as a father since I could not attend him when he was in distress.” The bitter truth in this case was that by the time the boy was taken to the KGMU trauma facility he was already gone. These are things that he feels needs to be addressed in right earnest.
He is not just working with schools, colleges, the media but is also one who has featured in shows like Satyamev Jayate. He has setup what is called the Shubham Soti foundation brigade which works on sensitizing across levels. He organizes Nukkad Nataks and biker rallies on a regular basis.
Courtesy Google
As a means to make aware he crafted the concept of what is called a traffic marshal who are trained at class 9 to 11 level. This is primarily based on the train the trainer model. With the Saves Kids Lives campaign he wants to touch 10 Lakh lives. He ensures honouring about 10l traffic police for their yeomen’s service in the field. Estimates show nearly 52,500 two wheeler riders are killed. Only 19.3 % are those who are wearing helmets.
As a process of making the young aware abut road safety his prime motive is to bring down the accidents below the national average.
In strong words coming from him as a person who has gone through a personal crisis he underscored no government department has road safety on its priority list.
There is need for patients to be taken to the medical facility from accident site at the earliest.
He urges the government departments to work on trained and equipped biker ambulances which are easy to manouvre in cluttered areas.
Shubham Soti was a student of class 12 studying at Modern School, Lucknow. He wanted to make it as a corporate lawyer someday but alas! that never happened.
The Shubham Soti Foundation, established in 2010 by Ashutosh Soti, works to garner much-needed attention to road safety.
The foundation not very long back in July petitioned the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, to enforce state-level authorities for better implementation of road safety.
The petition targeted at getting 1 lakh signatories by November 24 has seen over 1,30,000 signatures till date.
Ashutosh has been in talks with a few NGOs working across 6-7 states in the country and hopes to roll out a pan-India campaign to create greater awareness.
Perhaps only men like Ashutosh know how best to turn a personal loss into an opportunity to serve the vulnerable.
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