I am so happy to see the news yesterday that the Tamil Nadu Government has decided to operate special buses for the school children. Two months ago I read the sad news of a 16 year old boy called Bharathkumar who slipped and fell off from the overcrowded bus near Tambaram, Chennai. He succumbed to head injuries. It hurts a lot when such things happen and his case is not an isolated one. Statistics says that over three lakh children in the city take Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) bus to school every day with many of them travelling more than 8 km to school.
Bharathkumar’s mother would have told him to take a less crowded bus everyday but unfortunately the less crowded bus never came. I was very annoyed with the fact this happens very frequently in Chennai and authorities have not taken any steps towards putting an end to such disastrous things. With ladies special buses being operated across the city, a special bus for the students would do a world of good to many school going boys and girls who struggle a lot with huge school bags.
It might be adventurous to say that it’s a great thing to experience the footboard travel and to fight for a leg space. You might be calling me a sick old man who prefers to stay away from adventures but I am not worried about it.
With woefully inadequate bus services we are killing the school going children. I have also seen the obnoxious and irritating behaviour of few bus conductors and drivers towards school going girl children. The high class brats who have studied in international schools and village folks who studied in schools in their home’s backyard like me can’t feel or understand their trouble.
There’s no point in arguing about changing the staggering school timings. Increasing the number of buses and introducing more special buses for school going children is the need of the hour and am really glad to see an announcement of our state government recently to operate more special buses in the routes with clusters of schools.
As a common man and a citizen of this country/state I am so thankful to the authorities who have brought a ray of hope to the children who are forced to travel in footboard. Life is too precious and it’s the duty of the Government to provide a conducive and safe environment for the students to focus on their studies. I have not seen Bharathkumar or his parents. But everyone can feel their pain and grief. We can’t do anything to make his parents smile but we can put an end to such things. No more Bharthkumars.
3 comments:
You are right Bala. But plying buses exclusively for school children will not solve the problem. The Bus Driver and Conductor should be taught to behave more humane. I have seen many town buses in Trichy, who have just ignored the students (at the time of school closings in the evenings)standing in the bus stops and they move along and stop in the next. Basically these people (the Driver and Conductor) should be taught to behave properly towards the student community.
Agreed Sir. They refuse to stop the buses even during peak hours.
Really Nice Article…
We are the people only take action, after affected by any problem. Then we easily forgot those all till next, like Kumbakonam fire Indecent. It’s not really permanent solution.
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