Mothers to drive helmet campaign in Udaipur

In the iconic film Deewar, a nonchalant Shashi Kapoor who played an upright cop cuts short his angry brother’s rant (played by Amitabh Bachchan) on his luxurious acquisitions and lavish lifestyle by simply reminding him, “Mere paas maa hai (I have my mother)”. The adulation of mother as the guiding force in lives of youth is not lost on the Udaipur district administration, which has launched a unique campaign aimed at reducing two-wheeler accidents.

District collector Vishnu Charan Mallik launched a campaign “ma ki saugandh” where mothers are being asked to remind their boys and girls to wear their helmets before taking their two-wheelers out. The campaign invokes the mother-child bond and builds on the promise made to a mother by her child to stay protected while driving on the streets.

“I firmly believe that if the mothers make up their mind to not let their children out on the roads without helmets, then the loss of lives in accidents would be greatly reduced,” Mallik told reporters at the launch of the poster dedicated to the cause. The district collector said that the involvement of mothers is the key to safety of their kids. He said, the campaign seeks to create awareness in mothers so they can warn their children and ensure they wear their helmets at all times while riding a bike or a scooter.

The initiative comes on the heels of a terrible accident that claimed the life of a 19-year-old. The youth belonged to a family known to the district collector who decided to create awareness about safe riding. Sources with the administration said the first task of the campaign is to have the posters circulated to households with women. The administration is setting up a team and is dovetailing the campaign with on-going programmes to reach out to maximum number of mothers in Udaipur in the hope that ma ki saugandh will get the youths to wear helmets.