THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the re-opening of educational institutions came another menace, eve teasing. Those who underwent that duress only could tell how demoralising and depressing it can be. With time, however, a section of girls and women have grown bold enough to confront the eve-teasers, but the majority lot still prefer to overlook it. Most like to sweep it under carpet and prefer a pervading silence as they feel a lot are at stake if they open up about their experience.
Sensing this predicament, the City Police has started a pre-emptive strike against eve-teasers by launching ‘Operation Romeo’. Under this drive, the police on Saturday alone nabbed 46 people who were loitering around educational institutions with pernicious intent. City Police chief P Prakash said the idea behind the drive was to make the city a women-friendly one.“The drive was a pre-emptive move. We want to make women and girls feel carefree and happy. So the raids were held,” he said.
On Saturday, raids were held under all the 21 law and order police stations in the city on the basis of intelligence inputs. Each Station House Officer had entrusted one person under his jurisdiction to collect details about eve-teasing such as places where the eve-teasers gather and the routes in which the most number of eve-teasing cases happen. The intelligence reports are being heavily relied upon because most of the victims remain silent due to social stigma and loss of reputation.
“Eve-teasing happens everywhere. In this city too. But not many open about it and the complaints are also less,” the commissioner said. Usually, the police react to incidents that happen elsewhere like what happened after the Marad bus accident. But in the case of eve-teasing, they decided to adopt a preventive measure with an intention to be seen as a pro-active force.
“We have zero tolerance towards molesters and eve-teasers and hence we will adopt a tough stance,” said a police officer who is part of the intel collecting team.The information gathering team will also prepare a map depicting hotspots where eve-teasing is prevalent. On Saturday, five people were arrested in Museum Police limits which houses a slew of premier women’s/girls- only educational institutions.
However, the menace is not limited to students alone. Working women also face the issue and the most affected of all are employees of Technopark. Eight were arrested from near the place on Saturday.
Compared to educational institutions, the challenge before the law enforcers is they have to put round-the-clock surveillance in the area around Technopark as the employees operate in several shifts.