ABOUT US
CoRPS recognizes road safety as a public safety issue, and one that cannot be achieved without the participation of ‘public’. We are building an environment where everyone – governments, local bodies, elected representatives, businesses and citizens –has agency to (and prioritizes) saving lives and injuries.
CoRPS envisions roads as thriving social spaces shared among people from all socio-economic classes, as an equal privilege, with equal respect, be it for commuting, living or for livelihood.
CoRPS is on a mission where everyone has heightened perception of hazards that the physical and dynamic road environment brings along.
A result of the two above will be a significant reduction in the number of accidents and fatalities on the road.
CoRPS started its journey in 2013, researching and learning various aspects of roads and road-safety in India. The team continues to work on two of the four Es – Education and Engineering – with a Safe Systems Approach, to ensure that there are fewer incidents of road accidents.
OUR CORE VALUES
Empathy for all road users - Shared Social Space :
Unlike some of the western and developed counterparts, road-users in India belong to many socio-economic classes with little social space shared by all. Roads happen to be the only space that is shared among all – from the homeless to the ultra-rich, from those who earn livelihoods off the road to those who commute on the road. But we do not naturally see it like that, and hence it triggers a competitive, apathetic attitude among different road users. We believe that reintroducing roads as Shared Social Space will help inculcate empathy and fundamentally change our behavior on the road.
Scientific Temper – Every road user with high hazard perception :
The Indian road environment, from the physical features like broken pavements and potholes to dynamic features like jaywalking or speeding vehicles, directly influences the risks of road-crashes. The absence of scientific temper among road users brings down a road user's ability to deal with the risks. Our approach at CoRPS incorporates science and scientific tools across the board. This also keeps us focused on safe-systems thinking as we develop interventions to prevent road accidents.
Agency for change – everyone to contribute to road safety :
Road safety is a public safety issue. It cannot be overcome unless the public – every road user – has an opportunity to contribute to change. Education, Enforcement, Engineering, and Emergency-Response, each of the popular 4Es of road safety, has room to build agency among people to find different ways to contribute to road safety. We take ‘building agency’ seriously and hence CoRPS works with all constituencies, be it young students or driving schools or the governments, enables problem-solving agency in everyone.
Inclusion - Roads to reflect the diversity of public :
Public spaces need to reflect the diversity of public - along with age, gender, caste, community, livelihoods, and physical abilities. Currently, road infrastructure in India is largely built keeping in mind a specific user group. Be it for traffic cops on roads or for the cleaners who may have to enter the sewage lines for cleaning. Road infrastructure in India rarely counts in the needs of all road users irrespective of their caste, creed, or gender. We at CoRPS envision a road environment that keeps in mind the needs of all genders, castes, communities, persons with disabilities, and all age groups. We believe that roads should be equally accessible for people with disabilities. We hope to create dignity and meaningful work for transgenders (who are often only seen as beggars) while leveraging their knowledge of the roads. We are excited about creating opportunities for women who are using roads for their livelihood- either as a small pushcart vendor or as the traffic police. We feel roads should be as inclusive as possible.
With the above Vision, Mission, and set of Core Values, CoRPS commits to contribute to make Indian roads the economic, social, and cultural lifeline for every Indian and to save LIVES one by one.
OUR TEAM
CoRPS is a very small team of people with unique and scientific approaches. We aim to STRENGTHEN the existing efforts by the governments, non-profits, and experts, by bringing in data, psychology, and analytical science to road safety.
Here’s our team of staff. In addition to the following, we have a team of facilitators and consultants who are engaged on project-basis. Among our wider team of teams are individual leaders from Lifeline Foundation (Ahmedabad), Shubham Soti Foundation (Lucknow), Muskaan (Jaipur), and Arundhati Foundation (Bangalore).
But we consider the entire road-safety fraternity in India as OUR TEAM!
Sunish Jauhari – Founder
Passionate about saving lives, he started this initiative to prevent road accidents, and to reduce resulting injuries, disabilities, and deaths. He comes with over 20 years of experience in consulting, institution building, mentoring start-ups, and as a social entrepreneur himself. Sunish is an MBA from DAV, Indore, Madhya Pradesh. He loves to paint in his free time.
Chetan Umapathy Naidu - Program Manager
Chetan is an experienced instructor, a human resource professional, a Rotaractor, and an expert in volunteer management. Chetan leads program development and management with a small team of coordinators and facilitators. Chetan is an MBA from Ramaiah Institute of Management Sciences. His interests are Bike Riding, Trekking, and various Adventure activities.
Soudamini Mujumdar - Communications Consultant
Soudamini is an ex-journalist turned communications professional with a rich experience in the field of public relations and corporate communications as well. She provides communication support to the team for the various ongoing programs and company’s plans. She is a PG Diploma holder in journalism from Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai and has completed her graduation from DAVV, Indore, Madhya Pradesh. She spends her free time reading books from her never ending TBR pile.
JOIN HANDS WITH US
If you feel passionate about any of the above areas of work and want to make a change in the road safety space, do reach out to us.
