Delhi Government's crackdown on illegal buses is praiseworthy. Other States must follow suit
It is unfortunate that it took the murder of a seven-year-old and the rape of a five-year-old for Governments across India to wake up and start considering child safety as a priority. However, the Delhi Government's transport department had earlier initiated a drive to book and impound vehicles of errant school van and bus drivers. This is a very commendable move by the Arvind Kejriwal Government. Every day, unscrupulous drivers seem to pack tens of children into vans and buses way beyond the stipulated carrying limit of such vehicles which often have poorly installed gas tanks and are extremely dangerous. Several such vans, usually old Maruti vans, which have little protection against any collision, are rampaging across Delhi-NCR roads during school hours. It is good that the Government has recognised the danger such vehicles represent to the children they're carrying — often up to 15 children in a vehicle designed for only eight with school bags on the roof increasing the risk of them toppling over. These vehicles very often break all road rules by driving on the wrong side and taking illegal turns. This then becomes a danger to other road users as well.
However, these vans and buses as well as electric and cycle rickshaws that ferry school children are not a unique problem to the national capital city alone. This is an all-India problem; and on this front, the initiative by the Delhi Government must be seen as a nation-wide best practice. In smaller cities one can see rickshaws with wooden planks across them, with children barely able to walk dangling from them. With road safety an afterthought among most Indians, it is only a matter of time there is another tragedy like when a school van driver crossed an unmanned railway crossing with music blaring from his earphones oblivious to the hundred-ton railway locomotive hurtling down the track. While it is true that cash-strapped parents often have little recourse but to send their wards on such death traps, such parents also need to be given proper education that their children's safety is paramount. The new bus crash safety norms introduced by the Union Government should be retrofitted on all old school buses as soon as possible. In addition, after a bus conductor allegedly killed a child recently, it is imperative that all staff handling children in schools from the service staff to teachers are properly vetted. Excuses such as ‘outsourcing’ should not be entertained. The Kejriwal Government has given the bus and van operators a few days to get their acts together, and there can be no sympathy for these operators. But other State administrations must take cue and start cracking down on such transporters. Safety of the nation’s children is paramount.