Diwali cracker ban Yay or Nay

Image Source: Google Images Diwali Crackers

Diwali, one of India's biggest and merrily celebrated festivals across cultures. A festival that symbolizes the triumph of good over evil or simply light over darkness. Diwali is around the corner and so are the debates around Firecrackers. What do you think about the firecrackers ban? Yay or Nay?

Every year as Diwali nears, we hear noise from the media houses, activists, and environmentalists asking to ban the bursting of firecrackers. But why do you think this happens only during the Diwali festival? And why has this debate gained so much popularity in recent years? Firecrackers are burnt on every small and big occasion in India. Weddings, receptions, processions, shop openings, sports tournaments, and even election victories! When nobody has a say in those cases, why now? Have you ever wondered? The answer is simple. It's the vast scale at which crackers will be burst on this occasion and the amount of damage it can create later.

Firecrackers have a fair share of disadvantages indeed! The smoke they give out makes it difficult for people with breathing disorders. The noise it generates is harmful to animals any day! Dogs and cats can hear the sound much more amplified than our ears. So imagine the pressure it might create for their eardrums! The waste that the firecrackers leave behind, we know it all! For months together they will lay around in our neighborhood. The powder that remains back will eventually enter water bodies leaving them contaminated as well! In addition to the environmental factors which is the talk of the hour today, there are social concerns as well with respect to crackers. Research says the cracker industry has the largest number of child laborers and fire accidents leaving them with skin disorders and lung failures for the rest of their lives.

Growing up in the late '90s all you know about Diwali is a week-long celebration of bursting crackers and eating delicious food. Flowerpot, ground spinners, Rockets, sparklers, snake, pencil, atom bomb, Laxmi bomb, garland, and the loose red crackers that would last until Tulsi pooja. Oh yeah, how can I not mention those popping strips which we would burst either using guns or just on the ground with a stone! Contests those days were to see whose neighborhood makes more sound and which new cracker did they burst that year. Sadly the kids today will never be going to experience the childhood we lived with the crackers!

Environmental and climatic changes have become the talk of hour today. And bursting crackers is the last thing we would want to do to add to it! It's been some time now, that the debates around the ban of crackers have gained tremendous attraction and it will be the new normal in years to come. On the flip side, there are firecracker industries that invest crores to manufacture and local shops that spend lakhs to buy them. As a government body if you are going to ban them at least let them know well in advance. There is no point to make them when you are not going to use them!