Rashmi Lohia
Standing in the middle of one of the busiest road, she extends her left hand with the palm facing forward, while blowing the whistle along, signaling the people waiting at both ends of the road to cross the road and helping the motorist who seemed to have lost his way.
Thinking about the traffic police? You guessed it right.
With only few traffic lights in the valley being functional, these traffic personnel manually manage the traffic the whole day; being exposed to hazardous level of dust and vehicle emission on a daily basis. Around 1,000 personnel managing traffic in the valley, they are at a high risk of a variety of cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases due to the heavy concentration of pollutants.
Working daily in the noisy and polluted environment, they also suffer from fatigue, back/neck problems, arthritis, headache, indigestion, stress and have to undergo physical strain in an environment polluted by fumes, emissions from nearby factories, use of blowing horns, exhaust of vehicles, and blow of dust in the air by a speeding vehicle.
Bounded by the strict disciplinary codes of the police department, they choose to work for 10 hours daily under such adverse conditions without complaining. As a result, 50 traffic police personnel fall ill daily due to hazardous dust on the demolished but yet-to-be-reconstructed roads.
To avoid further deterioration on their health conditions, many traffic personnel wear masks while on duty. But, these plain masks are virtually useless as they do not filter out the harmful particles coming out from the vehicles. Despite putting so much of efforts, they are not offered regular health check-ups and masks by the department due to lack of budget.
The Government of Nepal is taking no measures to control pollution and take into consideration the health of these traffic personnel. Instead of remaining silent, the Government should implement vehicle inspection and emission testing effectively and put a ban on pollution vehicles. Along with this, the government should also provide the traffic personnel with pollution-resistant masks that can protect them from suffering from various respiratory problems and ensure regular health checkups. With the development of the country, there should be installation of traffic signals for automatic maintenance of traffic.
It’s high time that the Government of Nepal brings some laws and regulation to deal with the issues and derive effective and sustainable solutions to ensure health of traffic police in the country.
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