A NEW FOUND HOPE

Once in a week, every weekend, grab a chance to have a look near the JNTU signals at KPHB, you would find three or four civilians standing with the white collared traffic policemen trying to help people follow the traffic rules. On part of a traffic initiative from Bhavita our baby organization, every Saturday or Sunday we are helping the Traffic Police of Hyderabad at JNTU to spread awareness among people and help them go according to the traffic rules.

It has been three weeks since we have been doing it. Me, Naveen (our President), Subhash (a team member and also President of Nirmaan-JBIET) and Vijay Katta (another team member). Together, we active members of Bhavita, have been putting in our efforts for a better tomorrow. The first day when i joined my team for the initiative i was very disappointed. No one wanted to listen to us. No one bothered what we did. No one even cared about what we were trying to tell them. But as we put forward our efforts in the following week, we started getting a positive response. People actually clapped for us when we successfully stopped vehicles at the stop line at the signal. I was overwhelmed with satisfaction when one sir from his car rolled down his window gave me a clap and said "Good job". The satisfaction when you help someone is immense. The third week, that is, yesterday we got the best response. People never knew that they could help the traffic personnel's help with the traffic. Many people wanted to join us at the signals. They wanted to get registered with Bhavita. They wanted to help us too. We were happy.

Being a girl, I am vulnerable to eve-teasing. I stand at the middle of the road, and not only young teenage boys i even have uncles staring at me like I have entered from some fair and lovely ad. They gape at me and the looks are enough for you to get embarrassed. Luckily, the Constables and CI there are very supportive. There is always one Constable beside me protecting me from the "looks-could-do-anything" stare. And not to forget i also have Naveen hovering from his position to mine every now and then to check on me. But, seriously speaking, when a girl tells them what to do and what they are doing is wrong (Especially to a man) it hurts their ego. They listen sometimes and the other times they curse us. But, we go on. We have the support of ten's of people compared to the abuses of one person. In the starting it was none. Today it's ten tomorrow there might be many. We are always here to spread the awareness among people and hopefully others will join us too.

We had people telling us, that the police here are of least use and that the traffic police at other cities like Bangalore or Chennai are very strict. Here, no one wants to listen to the police or what they have to say. Everyone has a reason of what they are doing at the wrong side of the road or at a no-parking board. They have a flat tire or no petrol or they have laid the foundation for the road or you could get the worse, the mayor is his/her relative. Such people are the reasons for the state of pollution at Hyderabad. I am sure that we could do even better with more active people. This is my request for all hyderabadies to please help us spread the traffic awareness among people. Our President will always be available on his mobile or email. I have attached the link for the home page of our organization. Please check on it and keep a tab on our updates.