When underage drivers traded bike handles for brooms
HYDERABAD: “This is not only a punishment for our kids, this is a punishment to us as well,” a 32-year-old mother tells TNIE, sitting outside the juvenile home in Saidabad and watching her son sweep the common areas with a broom — part of his court-mandated social service for underage driving.
During a special drive launched on April 5, Hyderabad police booked over 1,200 minors for driving vehicles illegally. The fallout? Community service including cleaning juvenile homes — and perhaps more lasting, regret for families.
Some parents, like this mother, now question their decisions. Others, still in disbelief, recall the small lapses that led to legal trouble. A 30-year-old single mother remembers handing her son a two-wheeler to fetch medicine, only to find he took two friends along — and got caught. “It was totally my mistake,” she says.
A city juvenile court recently directed more than 200 minors to do social service. At the Saidabad juvenile home, brooms have replaced bike handles for many of these boys. The idea isn’t to punish harshly, but to teach accountability — a message being absorbed just as much by the parents.
The single mother said that most of the parents who attended a counselling session conducted by the police on the dreadful consequences of allowing underage children to drive vehicles on city roads expressed their regret. “They questioned our wisdom to allow the children to drive vehicles and made us understand the repercussions of our thoughtless decisions,” she told TNIE.
In hindsight, the parents realised their mistake and some of them discussed a recent accident on the Dr Manmohan Singh Expressway in which three minor boys lost their lives after hitting the median.
Some expressed worry about the future consequences for the children booked for driving. A 37-year-old mother said: “Though the police officials assured us that it is not a big case and there would be no serious consequences, I still worry about my child’s future.”
Another woman, aged about 35 years, who attended the counselling session, recalled her son being caught by the police at Mehdipatnam a day before his SSC exams. “I told them (police) that my son had an exam to write the next day and requested them to spare him. After the exams, the police asked us to appear before court. The court gave us a punishment for violation of traffic rules,” she said. Her son, a 16-year-old boy, said that he had gone on a two-wheeler to help his friend.
Speaking to TNIE, Hyderabad Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) D Joel Davis said that if a minor is caught driving, the vehicle owner — typically the parent or registered owner — is also held accountable and faces legal consequences. “We have filed charge sheets in some cases and will proceed against others soon. After this process, we will proceed for cancellation of vehicle registration,” he added. According to him, as per the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, minors are strictly prohibited from driving vehicles.