Cause riding — where bikers turn ambassadors for a good cause — is catching up with young bikers and riding groups in small cities across the State. Substance abuse, protection of the girl child, animal welfare and road safety are their prime concerns.
Jaspreet Singh Saini, aka ‘Biker Monty’, who founded the bikers group, Bidar Wanderers, is dedicated to animal welfare and road safety. His group of 20 bikers goes to schools and colleges asking students to make way for ambulances. “Empathise with the patients in the ambulance. Next time it could be you,” is their tagline.
Monty and friends are also the first to get a call when an animal is injured in an accident. They coordinate with the animal ambulance in the Karnataka Veterinary, Animal and Fisheries Sciences University, and ensure that it gets treatment.
The Xtreme 99 bikers from Hubballi–Dharwad is creating awareness on substance abuse and organise awareness camps for college students to talk on the ill effects of drug addiction.
The Bike ambulance project in Bengaluru was influenced by the efforts of Maharashtra bikers, who serve as volunteers to ferry the injured and sick during Ganesh immersion and Varkari Dindi processions. Kalayanaraman Venkatesan, from Pune, has been a member of Street Sense, one of the biking groups that is in action during the Dandi and Ganesh processions. “I stopped riding for fun after a family member was injured in a road accident. Now if I mount my bike, it’s for a cause,” he said, during his recent visit to Bidar.
Srinivas Chamarthy, a young scientist from Hyderabad left for the northeast, after donating blood in Bidar. He plans to cut through 600 districts in the country, visiting engineering colleges to dissuade talented young professionals from leaving the country in search of jobs.
Vinod Rawat from Mumbai works for the NGO Indian Mouth and Foot Painting artists.
He markets paintings created by the physically challenged. The biker with a prosthetic foot ironically had his left leg amputated after a bike accident in early childhood. Jitendra Pahadia of Nanded and his troupe visit schools, colleges, NGOs and companies asking them to protect the girl child.
“People tend to think we are mad to go around biking all the time. Cause riding is just to show them that our passion expands to other areas too,” Mr. Saini told The Hindu .
