Rajasthan cop prints traffic rules on wedding cards to spread awareness

A 29-year-old traffic police sub-inspector in Bharatpur will marry on April 19, and she has printed traffic rules on her wedding invitation cards.

The sub-inspector, Manju Foujdar, lost her father and brother in road accidents. The personal tragedies left a deep impact on her psyche, and she vowed to spread traffic awareness and prevent deaths in road accidents.

“I lost my father, Ishwar Singh, when I was only one year old. He died in a road accident. My younger brother, Devendra Singh, also died in a road accident in 2006 when he was only 17 years,” Foujdar said.

“These two losses had a deep impact on me, and when I got an opportunity to serve in the (traffic) department, I decided to make people aware about traffic rules so that precious lives can be saved.”

Manju Foujdar’s wedding invitation. (HT Photo)

Talking about her difficult childhood, the police officer said, “After my father’s death, the responsibility of raising my two siblings and me fell on my mother, but she never allowed our financial condition to be a roadblock in our education.”

After completing her schooling at the government senior secondary school in Kumher in 2005, she graduated in arts from RD Girls College, Bharatpur. She then did her Bachelor of Education (BEd) in 2009 from Mother Teresa College, Bharatpur.

Foujdar’s elder sister, Rekha Foujdar, is a clerk and works at the office of Jaipur police commissioner.

“I wanted to get a government job to share my mother’s burden, but my heart was always in the police department,” Foujdar said, adding that her father was a police constable.

Manju Foujdar, who did her Bachelor of Education (BEd) in 2009 from Mother Teresa College, Bharatpur. (HT Photo)

During college days, when she travelled by public transport from her village to Bharatpur city, she often faced harassment. “Boys and men would pass lewd comments and I felt helpless,” she remembered. When she became a police officer, she started taking action against men harassing women students.

“Harassment sometimes becomes a reason for school dropout. I want women to study so that they can stand on their own feet,” said the police officer.

Foujdar said road accidents lead to deaths every day on because youths don’t wear helmets and don’t follow traffic rules.

“We need to realise that helmets should be worn for our safety and not just to avoid penalty imposed by traffic police,” said the sub-inspector who will marry government schoolteacher Harvir Singh of Pali village in Bharatpur.

Manju Foujdar’s mother Rakesh Devi is a happier woman today. “I am happy that she (Manju) followed in her father’s footsteps and is serving the people through the police department,” she said.