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| Women Empowerment and the Tale of Two Cities | | | Siddharth/Mishu Gupta
Early Times Report
Chandigarh/Jammu, September 3: As the nation wide campaign had taken a forceful surge favouring female empowerment in all departments of the life, the male bastion that used to uphold the chauvinism not to be bogged down by its weaker component too had to join the bandwagon for securing this right to females.
This was to respect the constitutional call that demanded that women should also be seen upon as a reckoning force along with its male part to be recognized as an equal partner in nation building process.
In contrast however, a very small issue is been generally witnessed on Chandigarh roads where a common platform shared by both men and women have a very peculiar difference that catch fanciful thoughts.
A female riding a two wheeler is spared from using a helmet whereas, besides a male pillion rider is also bound to wear one, failing which the owner may invite a challan that may carry a heavy monetary weight ranging from Rs 500 to even Rs 1000.
“They say it is a legal obligation on males to wear helmet while driving and the pillion rider should also wear it while girls do not need to do so,” said a daily commuter at Matka Chowk in Sector-17 while talking to this Jammu ET correspondent.
Back at home in Jammu, though such funny stipulation is not in practice separately for males and females, yet the traffic department here is much accustomed to leapfrog in front of speeding scooters and bike to catch hold of them for realizing some money as challan, most of which evades government coffers.
“The traffic cops here seem to be quite intelligent and modestly trained also just to rough up two wheeler commuters for not wearing a helmet and strip them off Rs 100 note as a challan,” said a JU student who said he experimented with these cops for nearly a month without registration, insurance and helmet and was challaned twice for not wearing the helmet.
“ These guys did not even care to enquire about the papers or spare a look into the tool box, but sported a very satisfying look to have shelved Rs 100 for not wearing a helmet,” said Anurag, 22, the JU student.
In Chandigarh, however the ritual of leapfrogging is not in practice as traffic lights do the job for them if they have to catch upon a ‘prey’.
“Generally they pounce upon the one who deifies the rule or acts smart to run off. Also they just keep a hawk’s eye on the outside vehicle for finding some fault into it and strip them off some handsome amount,” said a localitie at Sector 47, but failed to rationalize as to why men and women face distinction and discrimination in wearing a helmet while riding a scooter.
“May be Chandigarh women have strong heads,” he cackled.
A traffic cop who too cut a sorry figure on a query to reveal the fundamental behind this prerequisite said, “We are just to see the regulations being followed religiously. It is a government order and we are abiding by it,” he said.
If a distinction and discrimination is apparently seen among the two sexes in a tale of two cities of northern India favoring females only, how much women empowerment may favor eves in coming times is an unpredictable notion.
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