Supreme Court diktat on age limit and pyramid height for ‘dahi handi’ must be welcomed by one and all as the very purpose of festivities are lost if fatal events take place during its celebration and there is loss of life and permanent disability to participants. Steps must also be taken to keep the sanctity of religious festivals intact and politics as well as commercial aspect need to be kept out of festivities. Often, we have observed that people participate in dahi handi pyramids in inebriated state and police should keep a watch and punish those found guilty on this count. The festivities should be in open playgrounds or other safer areas and courts should ban religious activities on busy roads and street corners which make movement of vehicles and traffic difficult. Medical help and ambulances must be made mandatory during dahi handi so that casualties are kept to zero levels. The number of dahi handis too need to be curtailed and the focus should be on enjoyment and not on the height of the pyramid or the number of such events in the city!
S.N. Kabra
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
