T he ‘No Helmet, No Petrol’ movement has been gathering momentum around the country. Today, parts of Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Odisha and other states are enforcing this rule, making sure riders are only allowed to fill fuel in their two wheelers if they are wearing headgear. The number of road accidents and the injuries and deaths related to them are on the rise. Everyday people are dying in some part of India due to rash and negligent driving. A larger percentage of those injured or killed are two wheeler motorists. Let’s face it, India doesn’t exactly have proper road ethics. Laws are broken and bent with impunity and there is even a
certain section of the populace that claim the government is
only enforcing helmet rules to allow helmet manufacturers
to make more money. But as the numbers keep racking up,
the courts and law enforcement are at a loss when it comes to
creating awareness and encouraging people to ride and drive
safely. A ‘No Helmet, No Petrol’ movement across India might
go a long way into making the roads safer, even if it is a slow
progression. At the end of the day, something has to be done.
Of course, care must be taken by the governments. The first
thing to do is to find a way to introduce this in a legal framework.
The next thing would be to properly define what a helmet
is. The reason? In Madhya Pradesh, men rode up to petrol
pumps with buckets and milk container lids on their heads.
