Mussoorie: Raghvendra Kumar, famous as the 'Helmet Man of India', needs no introduction. He is the person who has saved many lives by coming out on the streets and making people aware about wearing helmets. There is a touching story behind his becoming a popular helmet man in the country.
He is originally from Bihar, was so deeply affected by the death of his friend Krishna Kumar in a road accident that he even sold his house to run a road safety campaign. When he was studying law at Lloyd Law College, Noida, Krishna Kumar, a resident of Madhubani, Bihar, became his friend. Krishna Kumar's family members were very happy that their son has got a friend like Raghvendra Kumar who became like an elder brother.
Raghavendra Kumar said that in the month of March 2014, he had gone to Kolkata for some work. Then he got a call from his friends that Krishna Kumar had met with an accident.
Friend dies: The accident happened on the Noida Expressway. A person passing by the expressway noticed the accident and rushed Krishna Kumar to the nearest hospital as he had a very deep head injury. He was not wearing helmet. Krishna Kumar was admitted to the hospital and got treatment for a long time, but his life could not be saved. At that time, Raghvendra Kumar could not even attend his friend's last rites. Krishna Kumar's mother kept saying again and again, 'Why could I not buy Krishna a helmet?' This thing shook her to the core. Krishna Kumar was the only child of his parents.
On the other hand, the doctors said that if Krishna Kumar had worn a helmet, his life could have been saved. After this, Raghvendra promised Krishna Kumar's mother that he would do something in the future in memory of his friend. He decided to run an awareness campaign about road safety. So that no one else dies in a road accident like this.
Reaches Indian Idol: Helmet Man Raghavendra Kumar then made it his life's mission and undertook awareness campaign on road safety in 22 states of the country for the last 10 years. He has reached the stage of Indian Idol from where he raised the voice of road safety. Lakhs of families heard the voice of Helmet Man of India through Indian Idol's 'Farz se Fighter' program.
Raghvendra Kumar said that till now he has distributed more than 65,000 helmets. He also created a world record by distributing them. He has been successful in saving 35 lives so far under this campaign. He said that to do this work, he first left his job. After that he sold his house in Noida, then started running a nationwide awareness campaign for road safety.
Sold ancestral land: Raghvendra Kumar has sold his 7 bigha ancestral land in Bihar for this campaign. So that, he can distribute free helmets to as many people as possible. He said that his aim is to make the country's 1.4 billion population aware about road safety. For this, he is touring every corner of India. He said that today 20 people are dying on Indian roads per hour and 8 of them are those who are without helmets. In the country, around 1 lakh 70 thousand people die in road accidents in a year. Out of which 50,000 are those who are the only children in the house. In such a situation, people should leave the house wearing a helmet to save their own lives.
Make children wear helmets: Helmet Man Raghvendra Kumar said that he got the law passed from the Supreme Court to make 4-year-old children wear helmets, but parents are not making their children wear helmets while riding two-wheelers. If children develop the habit of wearing helmets from childhood, then they will definitely wear helmets while driving two-wheelers throughout their lives.
Brand ambassador of Road Safety: Raghvendra Kumar also distributed helmets in Mussoorie. Where he said that Uttarakhand Inspector General of Police and Director of Traffic Mukhtar Mohsin has made him the brand ambassador of Uttarakhand Road Safety. He is going to every corner of Uttarakhand and making people aware about helmets.
He said that in the coming times, helmet banks will be set up at various places in Uttarakhand where people will be able to take helmets by giving their Aadhaar card and telephone number for riding two-wheelers. On their return, they can deposit the helmets back in the helmet bank. So that, this will help more and more people wear helmets and save their lives.
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