Kerala Rising: From Exporting People to Exporting Ideas · Page 127 of 353

KERALA RISING · FROM EXPORTING PEOPLE TO EXPORTING IDEAS

KERALA RISING · FROM EXPORTING PEOPLE TO EXPORTING IDEAS
2023 at a project cost of about ₹232 crore; they
detect on the order of 200,000 traffic violations a
day and had collected tens of crores in fines within
months. It is the punishment half, and it works as far
as punishment can. This program adds the half that
is missing. Recognition, and in doing so completes
the feedback loop that enforcement alone can never
close, using a verification cost a tiny fraction of what
the camera network already cost to build.
The behaviour we want to make ordinary
Kerala’s roads carry a culture of dangerous
overtaking, wrong-side riding, blocked junctions,
triple-riding, and phone use while driving.
Enforcement is punishment-only and, however
automated, it changes behaviour at the camera and
nowhere else. The driver who rides courteously and
wears a helmet every day receives nothing back.
Safe driving is invisible, so it stays a private virtue
rather than a competed-over norm.
The toll is not abstract. In 2025 the state recorded
3,733 deaths and 56,922 injuries across 49,889
accidents, against a vehicle population near 1.9
crore; fatalities have edged down with sustained
enforcement, but accidents and injuries keep rising.
Enforcement has taken the curve as far as
punishment can. The remaining distance is a
recognition problem.
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