About 5000 students from 115 private and government schools across the city will either visit traffic police stations or invite the traffic police to their schools through February, to celebrate and express gratitude towards them. CMCA’s 14th Traffic Police Day, the flag-off event of a month-long celebration of the city’s traffic police by children, was held at the Traffic Management Centre on January 28th. P Harishekaran, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), traffic constables, and school students were present.
CMCA’s Traffic Police Day is designed to foster positive interactions between the traffic police and children. The idea is to introduce children to the traffic police, encouraging conversation, empathy and gratitude for their services. CMCA is a national non-profit organisation that transforms the lives of children and youth through citizenship and life skills programmes, in partnership with hundreds of volunteers. A pioneer in citizenship education, CMCA currently works with 50,000 young people in 600 educational institutions across India.
At the event, the children showered Bengaluru Traffic Police with praises. They commended the unending zeal and tenacity that the traffic police display despite the numerous challenges they face every day. Also, several students gave ‘thank you’ cards and hand-written poems to the traffic police.
Touched by these gestures, Harishekaran said, “This initiative feels wonderful. Never in my life have I been presented with so many ‘thank you’ notes”. He spoke about bringing together the traffic police and the city’s children under one roof. He said, “This would enable the children to see us for who we are. Barriers would be broken, and trust built. CMCA makes this happen. Our collaboration with CMCA goes way back and I commend them for what they do.”
Ashish Patel, Director of CMCA, said, “Traffic Police Day is an initiative to build trust and foster better relationships between the traffic police and children. It is also aimed at thanking the traffic police for their tireless services to the community. The future of India lies in the hands of our children and we want to give them experiences that will go a long way in community-building and participation.”
Note: This note was sent to Citizen Matters by Flora Macaulay and published here with minimal editing.
What Bengaluru Traffic Police requires is strict vigil and adherence to laws akin to Kolkata. There is absolute disregard for traffic rules and civic sense here. Changing lanes suddenly, parking at corners, not flashing indicators, shameless signal jumping, driving dangerously (mostly cabbies and predominantly two wheelers) and what not. The only thing BTP seems to be concerned with is who’s wearing a seat belt and who’s wearing a helmet where they can book the driver and earn a fast buck.
We need reforms in the traffic vigilance in Bengaluru and I’m not kidding (no pun intended)