Street harassment of women remains a problem in Bengaluru despite ‘no rise in police complaints’

“I filed an FIR on January 10 and had to go to the court to record my statement after a week but after that nothing has happened. They did not contact me and I don’t know when they will because when they do, I’ll have to inform people at work and it is a very long process,” the woman said on the condition of anonymity.

Some other victims have chosen not to report the incidents. “I am very tired… This is like a routine now and I don’t have faith in the authorities that any strict action would be taken. Moreover, it takes a lot of time to process everything that you go through and by the time you process it, you don’t have the energy to relive it and go through that again,” said a young victim of street harassment.

“Will it even make a difference? Reporting a crime in itself is a tedious process. Every woman I know has been through some sort of street harassment, and most of us choose not to register a complaint because we do not want to keep visiting the police station again and again and get nothing out of it,” another victim said.

According to data from the National Crime Records Bureau, Bengaluru had 616 cases registered under IPC sections 354 and 509 (insult to the modesty of women through word, gesture or act) until the end of 2021. The report shows a 14.5 per cent rise in cases of crime against women in 2021.

According to the NCRB report, 15,465 cases of crime committed against women in Bengaluru remain pending in court and the trial pendency rate stands at 93.8 per cent. Further, 871 police investigations remain pending and the investigation pendency rate stands at 20.8 per cent.

Speaking about the handling of street harassment cases, additional commissioner of police (east) M Chandra Sekhar said there was no perceptible increase in the number of registered complaints. “There is a procedure that we follow in such cases. We take these cases very seriously and logically handle them,” the additional commissioner added.

Of the 616 cases, 597 were registered under IPC section 354 and 19 cases under IPC section 509. The chargesheet rate for the former stands at 14.4 per cent and for the latter at 0.5 per cent.

According to section 354, a person found guilty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term not less than one year, which may extend to five years, and shall also be liable to fine. As per section 509, a person shall be punished with fine and simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years.

Harassers can also be charged under IPC section 294, which states: “whoever causes annoyance of other, or does any obscene act in any public place or sings recites or utters any obscene song ballad or words in or near any public place shall be punished with imprisonment of whether description for a term which may be extended to three months or with fine or both.”

By the end of 2021, 871 court trials were completed and 1,025 cases disposed of by courts. One case ended in conviction while eight were discharged and 837 ended in acquittal. The conviction rate stands at 3.6 per cent. As many as 3,308 cases were quashed before trial, four at the investigation stage, 16 stayed at the investigation stage and 871 remained pending. The chargesheet rate stood at 73.1 per cent.

Talking about the punishments, a street harassment victim said, “Eve teasing is a behavioural problem. It cannot be possible that the man who eve-teased me did not eve-tease other women before me… Even if there is imprisonment, these people need to be taught about proper conduct”.