MANGALURU: Apps where an SMS can be sent if a girl is in distress is not of much help here as mobile phones are banned in most of first grade and PU colleges.
After a series of rapes and murders of young girls in the age group of 15 to 17 in the last three years, parents, peers and teachers are contemplating on allowing girl students to carry a mobile phone to college.
“It could be the last line of defence as there are apps which can help a girl in distress by sending an instant SMS to a few chosen numbers pre-loaded with a single digit dialling. These are available on the store. But if the girl does not have a mobile phone, how will she let her folks know she is in danger?” asked Vidya Dinakar, an activist.
Colleges and even high schools should allow girl students to carry mobile phones, she said. Direct them not to use the phones on the college premises and make locker arrangements for phones, she said.
“Had Sowjanya and Rathna Kottari of Byndoor had mobile phones, they would not have been victims of rape and murder,” said parents.
“I had a fight with the PU college management when the authorities confiscated my daughter’s mobile phone on the first day of her college on June 10. Why don’t they understand the advantages of mobile phone,” asked Mahesh Shenoy.
“The whole family has to be in tension until the girl comes home safely. If she has a mobile phone, she can inform us about her whereabouts,” said Sumathi, a teacher at Thekkakatte.
On condition of anonymity, a manager of a PU college told Express that sparks fly at the quarterly parent-teacher-management meetings on this issue, but the management was firm on not allowing mobile phones.
“We have three boxes full of mobile phones confiscated from the students,” he said.
SP S D Sharanappa told Express that mobile phones do help in nabbing culprits. A girl carrying a mobile phone may not be an easy target for wrongdoers, he said. “Having said that, students should not misuse the phone. It is for their own safety,” the SP said.
