Make wearing rear-seat belts mandatory: Harsh Vardhan

Gopinath Munde’s death has had a positive fallout—it has created a deep concern over the lack of basic safety while driving and drawn specific attention on the need to wear back-seat safety belts, something that’s neither legally mandatory nor advocated through any awareness programme.

Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said on Wednesday, “Wearing a seat belt could have saved Munde. I lost my friend to a misconception. Most people think back-seat belts serve only a decorative purpose. But wearing them is as essential as wearing front-seat belts. Munde might have been alive had he been wearing one.”