This thread snaps lives also
‘KILLER’ THREAD Manjha, a thread that is used to snap kites during the festival season in Jaipur, kills people and birds. On Sunday, a 4-year-old died. In 2014, a 5-year-old was snuffed out by the thread
JAIPUR: Jaipur has a tradition of flying kites in December-january. This peaks on January 14, the Makar Sankranti day, when t he sky l ooks l i ke a colour mosaic of kites of different colours and shapes.
The tradition is also associated with snapping each other’s kites. For this, flyers use a special thread, colloquially called manjha. This is cotton thread coated with special material – metal powder, glass etc. – to make it sharp, so sharp that it sometimes snaps lives.
Like it snapped the life of fouryear-old Faizuddin this Sunday. Or, that of five-year-old Chanchal Kishore in January 2014.
Both these kids were sitting in front as their fathers rode their motorcycles. Manjha dangling in the air got entangled in their necks and slit the throat. Both the children were rushed to hospital but had died on way.
Several others sustain injuries from these lethal threads every year. This includes birds. Every year, bird lovers raise awareness to not use these dangerous threads but to no avail. The bird hospital at Sanganeri Gate is full of ‘patients’ every year in these two months.
At SMS Hospital, resident doctors of plastic surgery and neurosurgery departments are put on a three-day special duty in emergency to tackle injuries related to kite flying, said Dr Manish Agrawal of neurosurgery department.
Every year, the customary advisory is out. District collector specifies time for flying kites – from 6 to 8 in the morning, and from 5 to 7 in the evening – and bans use, sale and storage of this thread but these seem ineffective as there’s no decrease in number of people going to hospitals with cuts and scalp injuries caused by manjha.
“People come with cuts on the
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District control room: Police control room: face, neck and scalp. Some of these are deep and bony cuts. Some people come with injuries sustained i n accident t hat occurred while they tried to avoid manjha on the road,” Dr Agrawal said.
On Tuesday, chief minister Ashok Gehlot tweeted: “State govt has decided to prohibit sale and stock of Chinese manjha or plastic, synthetic thread & thread coated with lethal substances like glass or iron in the State. Decision has been taken as such a manjha is dangerous & causes loss of life and serious i njury. We will be starting awareness campaigns in schools and colleges against use of this hazardous manjha during kite flying, so that youngsters avoid this thread. Our focus is that people celebrate festivals with gaiety but remain safe.”
After this, additional chief secretary of home department issued advisory to all collectors to ensure these threads are not used in their districts. Jaipur district collector Jogaram said a control room has been set up at his office for complaints related to this.
Police commissioner Anand Shrivastava said that buying and selling of manjha had been banned in the city.
“The decision of ban has been taken seeing the kind of loss it makes to humans and birds. In order to maintain the security of people the city police has banned these under section 144 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CRPC),” he said.
He said violators will be booked under section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the IPC.
The punishment under this section is imprisonment of one month or a penalty of Rs 200 or both. In case of repeat offenders, the jail sentence can be for a maximum of six months.
AWARENESS
KEY TO SAFETY
Experts said awareness is key to safety from these dangerous threads. Neurosurgeon Dr Agarwal said people should be more concerned about their own safety.
“People on two-wheelers should wear good quality helmet that cover full face, cover their necks and be careful while riding during the festival time,” he said. The doctor said children become easy victims because in most cases they don’t wear helmets and their tissues are softer. “In cases where children have died d ue t o i nj uri e s c a us e d b y manjha, the reason was either injury of the carotid artery or injury in trachea,” he added.
The state government has also roped in education department and civic bodies to spread awareness against manjha. “The education department should tell students in morning assembly about the dangers of manjha,” said the advisory from the home department.
The municipal bodies should spread awareness about dangers of manjha through its hoarding and door-to-door garbage collection vehicles, the advisory added. The cinema halls should also run slides for awareness before the beginning of films.