No Honking Day

January 1, 2012

The Earth Saviours Foundation organised “NO HONKING CAMPAIGN” at ITO Delhi and Shankar Chowk Cyber City Road Gurgaon. Parineet Kaur and Bhavana Thakur, members of Gender Sensitization group, Legal Aid Society, participated with a large number of student volunteers from all over Delhi. During campaigning, the volunteers distributed pamphlets, stickers, displayed boards and slogans bearing “NO HONKING” slogans in order to convince them from minimizing the use of horn and spreading awareness about the harm caused by excessive honking thus creating Noise Pollution.

The volunteers also took the initiative to wipe off “Horn Please” slogans with black paint from every passing commercial and semi commercial vehicle and pasted stickers of “Do Not Honk” on the private vehicles with the permission of the owner.

The main slogan of the campaign was “कुत्ता भी बिना वजह नहीं भौंकता !” means, “even a dog  doesn’t bark without a reason.” The highlighted points were :

• Horns are only meant for emergencies.
• It is illegal to blow horns near school, temples and hospitals.
• Wait for green signal and don’t create unnecessary nuisance by blowing horns on red light.
• By converting “No Horn Please” from “Horn Please” make your city a peaceful place instead of a fish market.

A majority of Delhiites agreed that the noise caused on city roads was undesirable and a stricter implementation of rules including imposing penalties on violators was needed. Honking means using the horns only at the time of emergencies but in India it has became a norm rather than an exception. 

Parineet Kaur