CB BureauIn October, a nationwide awareness campaign called ‘Guardian on Road’, on the importance of wearing helmets for children pillion riders on two-wheelers, was organised by Gulf Oil Lubricants. While the wearing of helmets is compulsory for the drivers of two-wheelers, most of the time children pillion riders are not made to wear them.
As part of the child-safety campaign, more than 15,000 helmets were distributed to children. The campaign link is: https://youtu.be/Rrib9K1ygsU
Gulf Oil’s brand ambassador MS Dhoni kicked off the campaign by distributing helmets to children in Chennai. The fortnight-long activity took place in multiple cities across the country, including Mumbai, Coimbatore, Lucknow, Vadodara, Ranchi and Dehradun. The helmets being distributed were 540 mm in size, meant to fit children between 8 and 13 years old. As a follow-up measure, the company will be reaching out to the recipients of the helmets with reminder messages.
Ravi Chawla, MD, Gulf Oil Lubricants, told CauseBecause that Gulf Oil was partnering with schools in specific markets and conducting a road-safety awareness drive with support from local traffic police and RTO. ‘We have also initiated a drive to ask parents to take a pledge to ensure that their kids wear helmets while riding on two-wheelers – this pledge is active on our website www.gulfoilindia.com. We plan to rope in college students and conduct a drive to further disseminate this message,’ Chawla added.
Gulf Oil is encouraging consumers to sign the pledge and promote awareness among their friends and family, with a few pledge takers standing a chance to win a free helmet. While the company has stated that it plans to work on this initiative for a lengthy period of time, no specific metrics will be tracked to assess impact.