HYDERABAD: As she steps out of an MMTS train and heads towards the exit gate of Lingampalli railway station in the city, nervousness and insecurity grips 24-year-old Alayna. She desparately hopes to make it home safely and avoid the usual stalkers on her way.
After prolonged incidents of harassment, Alayna has now stopped taking the train and now books a cab everyday from her workplace to reach home. Another woman, Ranjini from the city frequently changes the route to reach home to avoid that one person who unfailingly follows her.
Both Alayna and Ranjini can consider themselves lucky as there are few women who have been threatened by stalkers of dire consequences; few others have forcefully confined themselves to their houses to avoid being stalked.
The incident in Chennai, where 24-year-old Swathi was hacked to death by her alleged killer P Ram Kumar, who reportedly stalked her for a few weeks, has once again raised the question of women’s safety.
Closer home in Adilabad, 18-year-old D Sandhya’s throat was slit by her stalker M Mahesh in full public glare on Saturday, as he did not want her to marry another person.
Sharing details of how they deal with stalking, Sarita (24), a student in Hyderabad, says she stopped stepping out of her house after a youth persistently followed her and threatened of dire consequences.
“A guy stalked me for a month and later proposed. But I rejected him. He warned me that he would do something bad. I was very scared and I didn’t step out of my hostel for many days,” says Sarita.
On being asked why she did not seek help from police, the student said she was scared and thought that the stalker would stop pursuing her as the time passes.
Another student, Dorcas Addo, from Ghana, studying at University of Hyderabad, however decided to take the problem head on and complained to the police about the stalkers.
“I was stalked many times where most of them used bikes. I usually threaten them by saying I would complain to the police, note down their bike numbers but sometimes I just ignore them,” said Dorcas.