PIB TrackerCashless ₹1.5 lakh for every road accident victim
A regional Manthan conference at Mumbai set out five interlocking road safety programmes — PM Rahat, Rah-Veer, Zero Fatality Districts, Sadak Suraksha Mitra and data-driven hyperlocal intervention.
What happened
- PM Rahat gives cashless treatment up to ₹1.5 lakh for up to 7 days, irrespective of insurance.
- Rah-Veer awards a Good Samaritan ₹25,000 per qualifying incident plus a certificate.
- The Zero Fatality District model now covers 100 districts across 15 states.
- eDAR is integrated with the National Health Authority's TMS 2.0 and the 112 helpline.
- The conference reaffirmed the goal of cutting road fatalities 50 per cent by 2030.
For Prelims
- PM Rahat: cashless treatment up to ₹1.5 lakh for up to 7 days from the accident, irrespective of insurance status.
- Rah-Veer: ₹25,000 per qualifying incident and a certificate for a Good Samaritan; no proceedings against them without their consent.
- Golden Hour: the first hour after a crash — 50 per cent of fatalities are avertable if the victim reaches hospital within it.
- Zero Fatality District: 100 critical districts across 15 states, each averaging over 400 fatalities a year.
- eDAR and TMS 2.0: MoRTH's crash data system integrated with the National Health Authority's transaction system and the 112 helpline.
- Sadak Suraksha Mitra: youth volunteers through MY Bharat, run with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
- Who dies: the 18-45 age group accounts for 66.1 per cent of all road fatalities.
- DDHI: a five-stage district cycle — alignment, capacity building, intervention planning, implementation, impact assessment.
For UPSC: Road safety is one of the few governance problems where the intervention chain is fully specified, from bystander to hospital bill. Use it for scheme design, emergency health systems and the Supreme Court Committee's role in driving executive action.
What it is NOT: Rah-Veer's ₹25,000 is a reward for a specific qualifying incident, not compensation for the victim — and PM Rahat covers seven days of treatment, not the full course of recovery.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS2.10 · GS2.13 · Linkage L1
Anchor
The reason bystanders do not stop is money and legal exposure; this package pays the hospital and shields the rescuer, which is a behavioural intervention disguised as a health scheme.
Substantiation (data)
100 zero-fatality-target districts averaging over 400 deaths each a year, 66.1 per cent of fatalities in the 18-45 age group, and 50 per cent avertable within the golden hour.
Exemplification
eDAR, TMS 2.0 and the 112 helpline are linked so that transport, health and police act on the same record — the first time the three see one crash the same way.
Problematisation
A ₹1.5 lakh ceiling over seven days covers stabilisation, not rehabilitation; and a scheme that depends on hospitals trusting reimbursement fails the moment settlement slows.
Way-forward
Publish district-wise Rah-Veer awards and PM Rahat claims settled, so the two schemes are monitored on payouts rather than on notifications issued.
Position
Halving fatalities by 2030 will be decided in 100 districts, not in national campaigns — road safety is a district-level administrative problem with a national headline.
Deploys into: Government policies + health systems (GS2.10, GS2.13) · road safety, emergency care design and district-level implementation capacity.
Ministry of Road Transport & Highways · 2026-08-24 · PRID 2302920 · PIB source ↗