Glenwood’s Sikh community want to keep their turbans on while cycling in suburban streets
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| Jasbir Singh and Atwar Singh are part of the Sikh community at Glenwood who are asking for an exemption on helmet laws. |
THE Sikh community is exempt from wearing helmets when riding a bicyle in Queensland, South Australia and Victoria and want the same law to apply in NSW.
November 04, 2014: Last week, they won support from Blacktown Council to change the law in NSW too.
Sikh community representatives presented a petition of over 400 signatures to Blacktown Council asking for an exemption to the law, citing religious and practical reasons.
Australian Sikh Association’s Glenwood branch general secretary Jagtar Singh said Sikhs only wanted a small change to allow them to cycle on suburban streets.
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| The Sikh Temple in Glenwood. |
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| Jasbir Singh, Naginder Bhandal, Gurnam Singh, Jagtar Singh, Bhagwa Singh Bhogal, Mehnga Singh Khakh and Atwar Singh want to keep their turbans on while cycling on quiet suburban streets. |
“We have a lot of old retired or semi-retired people who live around our temple (in Glenwood),” Mr Singh said.
“They can’t drive the car and there are no buses so it’s easier for them to ride a bike to temple. We are not asking to ride on the roads like the M4 or anything like that without a helmet. Most of the bicycle are riding on the footpath.”
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| Jasbir Singh and Atwar Singh wand the law to change so they can ride bikes on suburban streets to get to temple without a helmet. |
The law in NSW requires all cyclists to wear a helmet, creating difficulty for Sikhs who wear turbans that vary in size and shape and cannot be removed easily.
“We have for years been asking every politician who visits the temple for this change,” Mr Singh said.
“During World War I and World War II Sikh people fought without helmets.
“Our community is very law abiding we don’t want to break the law ... what we want is to make it legal.”