New Delhi: Putting on trial as many as 5,000 violators on Wednesday, traffic police initiated their restriction on women riding two-wheelers without helmets in the city. The effort came next to the transport department handed out a mandate making helmets obligatory for all women on two-wheelers, with the exclusion of Sikhs.
“The drive was taken up on a priority basis and any woman travelling without helmets were prosecuted. Sikh women were exempted only when they could prove their identity,” said Muktesh Chander, special commissioner, traffic.
1,093 women were charged in central and Lutyen’s Delhi area, and 1,300 in south Delhi as told by cops. More than 850 were fined around Delhi University’s north campus and another 1,500 in east and west Delhi till 8pm on Wednesday.
While maximum violators willingly accepted the Rs 100 fine, some claimed ignorance about the fresh instruction, said police. A few even came up with weird excuses. Women constables were positioned to influence violators about the safety concerns that encouraged the new rule said the Traffic officials.
When the women were asked the reason for not wearing the safety gear, most of them came up with defenses such as non-accessibility of helmets matching to their clothes. A few of them even contended with the cops. “I had gone to buy a helmet from a shop in east Delhi, but the only ones they offered were black and red, which did not suit me. I have ordered a designer one for myself and have to wait for a few days,” said Priyanka Gulati, a DU student travelling from Laxmi Nagar to Connaught Place.
While riding pillion with her husband Manav, Tanisha, a student, who works as a television actor, was confronted for not wearing a helmet. She said, “I had gone to buy a helmet at a store in south Delhi, but none of the women’s helmets came with vents. They were really uncomfortable.”
Meanwhile, the helmet suppliers across the city said they were running out of women’s helmets as the call had suddenly spiked throughout the day. “As soon as the drive against helmets started there were at least 50 customers asking for the same type of helmets, which was impossible for us to supply,” said Ashish Jain, a helmet dealer near Karol Bagh.
To escape from the challan, he said that a few women even picked for ones that did not conform to ISI ideals.