Increasing trend of stunt biking has not only put the lives of youth to risk but it has also increased unprecedentedly the intensity of social crimes in Kashmir. The recent attack of a group of stunk bikers on a family during their travel in a car in Srinagar during late evening hours shows that stunt biking has become a means to attack even women and children during the night when the victims would hardly find rescuers on the roads to save them from the attacks of stunt bikers. Just a day ago a biker died and another one was injured on Boulevard road Srinagar. Though traffic police has a role in stopping the stunt biking on the roads but the onus of stopping this bad trend lies more on the parents and less on traffic police. Irrefutable fact is that not having a driving license in hand does not stop a youth from performing stunt on his bike delivered to him by his own parents. Unfortunately a bad trend has developed among the Parents in Kashmir who without any resistance give into their children’s demands and buy bikes for them even if they are underage and do not have driving license in hand. Parents giving in to such demands are not just risking the lives of their children but they are also immensely contributing to growing waywardness among youth in Kashmir.
“It is for the parents to keep their children away from suicidal tendencies like stunt biking by not giving in to their demands for bikes. Raising traffic police barricades for checking driving licenses of youth won’t reduce as much the increasing intensity of bike riding among youth as would the role of parents for whom the priority should be safety of their children and not their travel conveniences”.
Parents taking a lame excuse that they give bikes to children for their travel to tuition centres forget the fact that bikes they give to their children not only drive them to death but also spoil their future as well. Better it would be for the parents to ask their children to use public transport for reaching schools, colleges and tuition centres instead of giving them bikes which drive them to death and spoil their future as well. While parents can deny their children the facility to buy bikes for going to schools, colleges and tuition centres the schools and colleges can deny even admissions to students using bikes during the day time and similarly traffic police can carry out drives for checking driving licenses of students outside the entrance gates of schools and colleges. License checking by traffic would by all means reduce the intensity of stunt biking if civil society groups also organise social awareness campaigns against the use of bikes for travel to schools, colleges and tuition centres by students. Finally it is for the parents to keep their children away from suicidal tendencies like stunt biking by not giving in to their demands for bikes. Raising traffic police barricades for checking driving licenses of youth won’t reduce as much the increasing intensity of bike riding among youth as would the role of parents for whom the priority should be safety of their children and not their travel conveniences.
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