By: Shah Faez Hussain
Forenoon rush hour is the time in the morning when snarl-up remains hefty on the roads chiefly due to work purposes. This fitfully lasts for more than one hour also. In this hour of morning, people of every métier come out either with their cars or on two-wheelers to travel to their respective destinations. Passenger cars, taxies, buses and rickshaws also make a categorical appearance on the roads. Traffic jam is the predominant scene in this hour. This is quotidian and conventional. One cannot avert this from happening as practically anyone at all has to travel out of his home to reach to his workplace.
School timing is also timetabled in and around this rush hour of morning. School buses are seen with ebullient and cheery kids siting near the window panes. But the glum and gloomy side of the coin is that some students clad in eye-catching school uniform are seen riding two-wheelers and that too at a full tilt. It has become very common to see students zooming around the streets on two-wheelers. This has become a matter of grave concern. Most of them are underage and do not possess a driving license. These juvenile drivers are seen performing stunts on roads and are seen vexing other fully-fledged vehicle drivers wantonly. This sometimes results in horrendous accidents and sometimes results in shouting match between the underage riders and other elderly persons on the roads. Besides, in the fullness of time students become contingent on scooties or bikes to cover even distances in the proximity of their residential areas. It inclines them and alters their studies.
The first point is that we are incarcerated in conflict which is resulting in the elimination of Kashmiri youth and another point is that these bike accidents also supply largely in wiping out the underage population in Kashmir. Parents are notably culpable of this who get them a personal vehicle at an early age. Traffic police team also needs to be held liable to some extent who despite seeing the students riding vehicles don’t take notice of it. It is unambiguously illicit to drive a vehicle without a driving license. Students are simply violating the law.
Parents need to wake up from sleep and check into the matter. Parents should stop facilitating their wards with a motor vehicle especially two-wheeler at a very young age. Some parents retaliate by saying they don’t have time to drop their wards to school, tuition and other academies. But they invariably need to manage time for it or it may later result in misery. Singularly, school going children should be sent school by school buses. The ones who don’t travel by school bus should be dropped to school either by their parents or should travel to school by passenger vehicles. Moreover, schools should also forbid this unreservedly. They should not authorize students to park their vehicles in school premises and ensure that every student is coming either through school bus or by local transport and not by personal vehicles. Government should also take consequential steps and direct the traffic police department to keep a vigil on roads and ensure that roads are free of underage vehicle drivers. An underage driver caught should not be given his vehicle back and his parents should be called and made aware of the situation. When all these bodies come into a single field of collaboration and concord, only then we can hope of a bright future with brighter youth.
Author is 8th class student of St. Peter’s International Academy, Anantnag and can be mailed at shahfaez011@gmail.com
