A Traffic Policeman Speaks..!!

Few days back, I was caught by a traffic policeman as a part of their routine drive to check the vehicles at University Roads. I was wearing the helmet and had produced every required document and as I was leaving from there I asked him a simple question; how are you? And he was first surprised and then started telling me about the times and miseries he had been through. 

He was around 55 I guess but looked a lot older with wrinkles on his face clearly visible. I won’t be surprised if he was carrying some chronic skin problem. His body was not in best of the shape but he was still discharging his duty with utmost honesty and integrity. His name was Mahendra Sinh Rajput and true to his name he carried a moustache which looked settled. He told me about how his measly salary doesn’t make his ends meet. The medical bills of his elderly parents were mounting and as I’ve said earlier he too was not keeping well, so things were not at all good for him.

He joined police force way back when he was 22 and after a service of well over 30 years he is yet to get the dignity which he deserves; leave alone the financial problems. Same was the case with his colleague who repeated that dialogue from Singham which said ‘’Hum police walon ki salary ek corporate company ke peon se bhi kam hai.’’ Apart from that they are transferred like dogs and not to mention that people hurl abuses at them when they get caught by policemen for apparently doing their own duty. To add to that they have to work under the sun for 365 days in the process exposing themselves to various health hazards. This man hadn’t got leave for last two months and mostly his salary is delivered late he says.

As he was talking more about his life I was impressed by the man. He was not ranting about the cruel job and told me that honesty always pays off. His wisdom made me realize that education and literacy are two different things. He was a high school dropout but to me he was a literate person. He also taught me that you can either be content and keep working, or you can keep ranting and cribbing and make yourself least efficient. He gave me solutions for solving the problems plaguing the traffic. That says it all about the man’s dedication.    

The situation is even worse for the contracted traffic policemen. Since they are not permanent they do not get benefits like Provident Fund, Leave encashment etc. Imagine a 12 hour job under the sun for 365 days in a year without any permitted leave for a salary of Rs 6150 per month. Is this justice? Is this right? We use words like ‘development’, ‘growth’ but what we need right now is social upliftment and a bit of empathy from people like us. We need to treat them decently if not well. At least we should be polite and generous with them. And we should at least say sorry and pay the penalty if we break any law and not abuse or argue with him or use your dad’s connections. 

His story and struggle through the life inspired me. Was admiring him for all the tenacity that he had shown. He simply made my day with that talk. I couldn’t see his pain and so had to share the story. This is an unjust world I thought while writing this. Do not shy away from sharing such stories that’s the least we can do for them.