Opinion: To wear or not to wear helmet?
The helmet makes an appearance in and out of Chennai’s political laboratory, in which the “conscientious” leaders experiment with the value of people’s life.
The two political parties in Tamil Nadu, DMK and AIADMK, have always been vacillating between making it compulsory and optional for two-wheeler riders.What is more, they even use their muscle in this lab to reverse or even extinguish their opponent’s helmet rule.
The court rulings notwithstanding, the governments have played around its implementation at various stages. Each time the number of two-wheeler fatalities rises, the government wakes up to clamp down on riders without the gear.
In May, 2011, the AIADMK government had ordered the city police to implement the rule strictly with the fines and fees.
In 2007, the previous DMK government had made wearing helmets mandatory, again following the rising number of accidents.
To quote a senior police official from the then newspaper report, “We found most of the accidents occurred due to head injuries. Medical experts told us that head injury could maim a person for life.”
What a revelation! Weren’t our political leaders aware? Did we really need an expert opinion on this very basic knowledge? Don’t we know that a two-wheeler rider’s head is the most risk-prone zone.
To add insult to this injury of common sense, activists in 2007 had even condemned the compulsory helmet rule, alleging that the move was aimed at helping helmet manufacturers get orders and police officials to get bribes. In this case, activists placed the issue of corruption above human life.
Another political leader then even requested that women be exempt from wearing helmets.He probably felt women could afford to lose their heads.
All this brouhaha prompted the then chief minister, M. Karunanidhi, asking police officials not to “harass” people who did not wear helmets.
What a noble gesture!
Advance to Year 2015. The time has come again for people to be tried in this refurbished AIADMK lab.The D-Day for enforcing the helmet rule is July 1, and policemen are now on fourth gear to “warn” motorists with challans and sometimes “strictly warn” motorists with some top up cash, special since we are approaching the end of the month!
What our politicians and people do not realise is that helmet rule is not something that can be experimented. What is so strong linked to right to life is given political and judicial reasoning and overtones. Each two-wheeler rider has to feel responsible for his/her life. It is seen as “cool” for two-wheeler riders to go without helmets. What they do not realise is that it is their unadulterated foolishness to ignore this basic safety measure.
Rather than waiting for the state and court to enforce such rules, it is high time people take this upon themselves to protect their lives and body parts, rather than crowd the emergency wards and intensive care units of hospitals, seeking spare body parts and blood.
Grow up India.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the views of Folomojo.com
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