Bengaluru: Is safety meant only for the rich, and not the poor? Why don’t authorities reach out to citizens and explain safety guidelines to them? These were the questions that were raised by high school students at the safety parliament that was conducted as part of the National Safety Science Quiz (2014) over the last couple of days at Visvesvaraya Industrial & Technological Museum on Kasturbha Road.
Students from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Ghaziabad, Meerut, and Thirunalveli were invited to participate in the quiz and the safety parliament, organised by the National Council of Science Museums and Underwriters Laboratories (UL), a global independent safety science firm.
Two groups of students, around a dozen in each, who represented Members of the Safety Parliament, questioned experts from Food, Electrical, Fire, Environment and Road Safety ministries.
Hemanth Kumar, District Fire Officer for Fire Safety, S. Girish, DCP Traffic West Division, for Road Safety, Dr Asha Martin, Head, Department of Food Safety and M. Vishwanathan who is an expert in water conservation and sanitation, formed the expert panel. But representatives from Bescom skipped the session.
The students asked why high-rise buildings have fire alarms, but no smoke vents. The other questions that peaked everyone’s interest were: Why can’t vehicles be fitted with pollution control devices at the time of manufacturing? Why is that open defecation still a major problem in our country in this era? Why do women have to walk miles in Rajasthan for a pot of drinking water?
While a participant asked how the police are identifying traffic violators, DCP Girish said, “It is the educated who commit these offences and argue with the police. They have to change their perspective and follow traffic rules for their and others’ safety.”
Noble Saji Mathew from Kendriya Vidhyalaya INS Hamla from Mumbai, who was also named one of the safety ambassadors, said, “I enjoyed every bit of the quiz and the parliament.
It was informative, got to learn a few new things, and most importantly we got a platform to air our opinion.” Aditya V.H., a 10th standard student from Ryan International School, Bengaluru, emerged as the chief safety ambassador.
