CHENNAI: It happened about a year ago but I still get chills thinking about it, said 21-year-old Kavitha (name changed). “I was seated in a bus and a man who stood besides me suddenly began masturbating. Before I could recover from the shock, the man got down. Till this day, just thinking about the incident makes me shudder,” she said.The incident was just the beginning of my ordeal, said Kavitha.
When she visited a nearby police station to file a complaint the next day, the police personnel were less than supportive. “An officer tried to make me understand that these incidents are common and is best ignored. He said it will be difficult to trace the man and even if they catch him somebody else will commit the same crime with some other girl,” said the victim, who obviously did not lodge a complaint after that.While it is common knowledge that harassment in public places is rampant, data from Chennai police show that only 10 per cent of the total petitions at Crime Against Women Children (CAWC) are related to harassment in public places. In 2019, around 900 complaints were recorded, which doubled to 1,800 petitions in 2020 and came down to 800 in 2021.
Kavitha’s experience with the police was not an isolated incident. When a 32-year-old woman who was harassed by a group of men outside a mall in the city went to file a complaint, the police officer at the station allegedly questioned her for going out for a movie late at night. “All his questions were aimed at me and not the perpetrators,” said the woman who could not gather courage to visit a police station again.
According to M Priyamvadha, Professor, criminology department, Madras University, “There are officers who behave rudely with the victims, but the trend is changing. Recent studies show police behaviour towards victims has improved. Police personnel are undergoing workshops at state-level programmes along with social workers and activists, for better approach towards victims and their families.”
However, women TNIE spoke too had never ending tales of harassment. A 23-year-old who was on her regular morning walk was tailed by two men on a motorbike. They molested her a few metres away from her house and sped away. It was the same duo who had been following her for a couple of weeks. More than the questions from her family, the intimidating questions came from the police.But, she was among the lucky ones as she had a friend who helped her lodge a complaint, which led to arrest of the molesters.
This TNIE series examines issues faced by women in public spaces & what can be done to address them
What is being done