An obnoxious attribute of Indian motorists is to keep blaring horn without any rhyme or reason. It gives them sadistic pleasure to scare other motorists, who happen to be in front of their vehicle. Honking is considered an uncivil behaviour in most other countries. But we don’t care.
Our collective unconcern to this menace is most inexplicable. The vehicular noise causes annoyance and leads to nerve-wrecking stress in urban sprawls. We have not woken up to this hazard yet. Two aspects need elaboration. First, we are deficient in soft skills is well known — politeness and courtesies aren’t really our forte — but violation of traffic rules falls in another domain, i.e., relating to lack of respect and fear of law. Secondly, a duty is cast upon the road users to observe the public health and safety norms, failing which they need to be severely penalised.
The new Government at the Centre has launched Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan. This belated public policy prescription needs to be complimented by crusading against the other filth, namely, noise pollution. With hundreds of thousands of first-generation car owners, with two to three cars per family, and unrestricted bludgeoning number of all types of vehicles, and all of them happily blaring horns all the time, peace in cities is a mirage. Every nook and corner of our habitat is affected by vehicular noise, most of which is contributed by deafening horns. While the sound of machines is still bearable, it’s impossible to tolerate the pain of honking. Sometimes one wonders whether this habit of honking is related to ‘obsessive compulsive disorder’ or some pathological disorientation — clinical psychologist may give a better diagnosis. In any case, such people are definitely in the need of help and earlier the better for all of us. But could there be other reasons like lack of community-mindedness, or a failure to understand what constitutes civility or concern for the society in which one livesIJ
Or has it come around owing to lack of exposure at an early age to developing appropriate social skills within the family, a fault line in the school curriculum, which doesn’t give such aspects more than a flitting ritualistic touch, lack of involvement in community affairs, an apathy to the world around us – an attitude that is the product of an ‘elbow society’ — enforcing and reinforcing the aggressive disposition of some individualsIJ Thus, is it an acquired social deficiency syndrome (ASDS)IJ We have no answers but the affliction needs to be treated in the larger interest of the society.
That brings our discussion to the issue of lack of respect for the law and the role of law-enforcement agencies. We know that those who zip around in high speeds, show road-rage, jump the red lights causing danger to the lives of others, blow horns in total disregard to the law and to the detriment of the public health are those, who have scant respect for the law and they do it with immunity because they know that there is no cost to such juvenile behaviour. Mildly put, some motorists may lack awareness of this public health hazard. So they need to be exposed to the perils of noise pollution and given appropriate class room training. Driving licence is issued today without any such counselling. This needs to be immediately changed — no new driving license should be given without the basic training in road etiquettes and taking a test of that through stringent evaluation.
Subsequently law enforcement becomes vital. Unfortunately, traffic police miserably fails in devising mechanism that prescribes and implements a cost to unruly behaviour on roads. Man by nature would calculate his risk and that being low would like to take a chance. Only a certainty that the risk is high by way of cost that he may try to avoid it. Most developed cities in the world have this in-built ‘cost to risky behaviour’. But we have reduced our democratic institutions into a sham. What do the traffic police doIJ They are enriching themselves at the cost of the public as speed money is the panacea for all traffic violations. It is common knowledge that crores of rupees are collected from traffic violators and it is a huge racket. So long as we have tolerance to such antisocial activities on the part of law enforcement agencies, it will nearly be impossible to build a society that has respect for law and a concern for the fellow beings.
I suggest that the Motor Vehicle Registration Department should issue a sticker to every new owner to be affixed by him on the back screen of his car which would say, ‘I love my dog but I don’t bark like him’. But that would still not take care of two and three-wheelers. Then, what about all those trucks who carry, as if mandatorily, the slogan of ‘Blow Horn’IJ The civil society must take a call and build a movement to stop this nefarious practice afflicting our roads. In the long term, appropriate education in road etiquettes from early school days may help. As of now, regular campaigns in schools/colleges, communities and clubs are required to be undertaken. Crucial points will be creating awareness, educating and training motorists before issuing license, building inescapable cost into traffic violations and clipping the unbridled powers of traffic regulators by appointment of conscientious and willing citizens who would work as traffic magistrates and report violations on hotlines, which would be acted upon in a fast-track mode.