Right from self-defence to obeying traffic rules, the group teaches everything to the cycling enthusiasts.
At an age when kids prefer to sit at home and enjoy their Playstations, Dwarka's newly-formed cycling group is motivating children to come out and ride! The Prerna Cycling Group, led by Vivek Bahal, is not only making children physically fit but also sensitising them about road safety and traffic rules.
The initiative has been given a green signal by the parents of the kids living in Prerna Cooperative Group Housing Society (Sector 10). Under their cycling regime on holidays and weekends, the children have also been learning about self-defence and first aid to treat other injuries.
"Children love cycling so I thought why not it could be used for their learning and developing good habits. So, we floated the idea among them and also some of the enthusiastic parents that we would do cycling in the early morning every weekend. This started a few weeks back and now we have a good number of children from 6 to 13 years," said Bahal.
Bahal added that because of cycling, children get up early in the morning on the days when they don't have to go to school.
“We start at 6 AM on weekend hence the children wake up early. Though they do it in school days yet they do not go on holidays and weekends. But now they have adopted this good habit. Besides in cycling, we cover a distance of five kilometers and in between," he added.
Vikas, an engineer by profession and the man behind forming this group, said cycling has made the children learn discipline not only at home but also on the roads.
“There is always a leader in the cycling and that leader is a kid of any age. That kid feels the responsibility as he or she has to guide the whole cycling team. Besides, they stop at the signal and guide other traffic to give a safe passage to the other children on cycle. So as a whole, they are learning many such things which could groom their personality."
Another member of the group, Asheesh Prakash, who is Group Captain, is teaching how to fight with odd situations. He trains them self-defence and how to be brave and confident in tough times.
“Such self-defence training is necessary for the kids as they could handle an odd situation. I take sessions of them and make them more confident." Asheesh concluded.
