World record made by “Har Head Helmet” campaign

Due to two-wheelers, common people have started getting a lot of convenience in their daily life, but at the same time, accidents are also increasing rapidly due to speeding vehicles, non-observance of rules and regulations of driving, etc. While driving scooters, motorcycles etc. two-wheelers, it is often seen that if an accident happens somewhere, the most delicate and important part of the body, due to injury to the head, becomes a fatal situation for the person. In such a situation, it comes out of everyone’s mouth that if that man had put on a helmet, his life could have been saved. Keeping the importance of helmets in view, people are requested to wear helmets. Everyone understands its benefits, yet many people do not apply it due to negligence. Due to the fast-increasing road accidents, the police department also takes punitive action for not wearing helmets and continues to create awareness by campaigning for wearing helmets, yet the desired success is not being achieved.

As soon as he took charge of Raipur SSP, Mr Arif Sheikh came to know that traffic is a big problem in the capital, and jamming of vehicles over short distances is a common phenomenon. He started finding a solution to this problem and started setting up traffic controllers, in charge, at short distances to alert people. CC TV cameras were installed at the square intersections and vehicles were speeded up by freeing people from the problem of traffic jams. But this speed created another problem. Raipurians increased their speed by racing the accelerator of their vehicles and the risk of injury to the riders of these fast-moving vehicles was looming large in case of an accident. Far-sighted and patient SSP Arif Sheikh knew that Raipur people used to avoid wearing helmets due to slow speed which had become their habit and something different was needed to change this habit.

On 05 August 2019, the President of a voluntary organization gave 100 helmets for free distribution to the Raipur Police. Inspired by this, SSP Arif Sheikh ji planned a massive campaign to distribute helmets on a large scale and Raipur Police started the “Har Head Helmet Campaign”. All police stations were included in this. Voluntary organizations, business organizations and other social service organizations were included for cooperation in the campaign. Linking social media and the emotional festival of Rakshabandhan, an appeal to gift helmets to brothers and sisters and take selfies with helmets was also widely publicised. In this way, many people and organizations started joining this campaign and in this way, and on 15 August 2019, on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan, Raipur Police distributed 15223 helmets with the help of various social organizations from 147 centres of the city. When these figures were sent to the Golden Book of World Records along with the application for the record, the result came back positive. To date, so many helmets were not distributed anywhere in the world in a single day and in this way, Raipur Police qualified for the Golden Book of World Records (GBWR) under the leadership of SSP Shri Arif Sheikh ji.

On September 07, 2019, in a dignified program organized by the Police Department at New Circuit House, Raipur, the invited representative of the Golden Book of World Records announced this global achievement to be recorded in the world record with the title of “largest helmet distribution in one day”. So a wave of joy ran in the entire community present. In the presence of IG Mr Anand Chhabda, Mr Arif Sheikh was awarded the world record certificate. DSP Traffic Mr Satish Thakur ji, Traffic Inspector Mr Durgesh Rawat ji, officers and journalists of various media, and social workers of major voluntary organizations, who made an incredible contribution in making the program successful and made the program a success day and night Everyone who contributed was also honoured.

The name of Senior Superintendent of Police Mr Arif Sheikh, the founder of the Har Head Helmet Campaign, is recognized all over India because of his different style of working. Born on March 30, 1980, in Sholapur, Maharashtra, Mr Arif Sheikh ji has dedicated his life to national service and public service by becoming an IPS officer, choosing the field of public service after doing engineering in electronics from Pune.