Apathetic attitude of police abets eve-teasing in Chennai

That the police have different priorities is undeniable. The issue of eve-teasing was brought up at one of the weekly press conferences of the City Police Commissioner last year. A reporter asked about patrolling outside women’s colleges in the city. “We will renew it. We were busy on other duty — elections, VIPs’ bandobust,” the Commissioner had said. Sarika paid the price for the police being on `other duty’.

Last year, a white brigade was launched by the City police. The brigade comprised women cops dressed in white, who could pass off for college girls. They were given specialtraining in martial arts. They would patrol the college area, identify eve-teasers, and hand them over to the nearest police station. The scheme that was launched with a bang and received tremendous publicity, fizzled out within months. Reason? The cops were over-burdened with other work.

Joint commissioner (north) Radhakrishna Raja says that in the last six months, patrolling outside colleges has been intensified following a barrage of complaints. Only at the end of last year, 3,000 women constables were recruited, and deputed from the battalion for this purpose.

Once out of the security of home, a woman is subjected to eve-teasing of varying degrees. You board the bus at anytime of the day and there are enough lecherous characters in the crowd, happy to pinch, push, and fall on you. The conductor turns a blind eye, the co-passengers could not be bothered, you grit your teeth and bear it, and helplessly swallow the humiliation and apathy around you.

The next day you opt for an autorickshaw. You are notsafe here either. Resist the driver’s demand for extra money, and you may even be physically abused, more so because you are a woman. Like it happened to this person near Park Sheraton. When she refused to get off the auto till the correct change of many was given to her, the driver grabbed her and threw her out of the auto, commenting that “after all you are just a woman”. She filed a complaint, and well placed as she was, justice came easy and the driver was taken to task.

A two-wheeler does not spare you the harassment either. Three women journalists have had terrible experiences in the recent past. One was riding pillion with her husband, and a man in a motorbike reached out indecently to her, and rushed past. With her husband’s support she filed a complaint.

Another, on her way home to suburban Nanganallur, was accosted by a Romeo on wheels. She rides towards a traffic cop, and the Romeo disappears.

In another incident that took place on Dr Radhakrishnan Road, half a dozen men in a Maruthi Gypsy,targeted a woman journalist. They tried to grab her and push her off the bike. She immediately went to the nearest police station. The culprits were arrested and fined.

All three women had the power of a press card giving them greater access to justice. But everyday, dozens of women go through worse experiences and there is no one to hear them out. Recently, a motorist was physically abused at a signal near the Anna flyover.

“I went to a police station on Anna Salai and was directed to Greams Road station. I sit there for half an hour, begging them to take down a complaint. The cops looked at me accusingly, and asked why I have to be out on the road at 10 p m. ,” she recalls. It was name throwing time then. “I mentioned some names and got the help of some influential people. The police were then on their toes, proving how efficient they could actually be. Those men were traced the very next day,” she says.