How some protectors turn persecutors in Chennai
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A bright orange poster on ‘gotstared.at’, a Facebook revolution against sexual harassment being followed by hundreds of women across India, reads thus: “Gurgaon Police logic
Q: How can we stop people from urinating on walls? Ans. Remove the walls”.
This sarcastic jab at the police’s attitude to preventing sexual harassment in the national capital is apt even for the Chennai police, who seem to be more interested in pulling up women who travel alone at night, than protecting them from eve teasers and chain-snatchers.
“The poster is very relevant to the behaviour of cops in our city today. In the last two months, I have been stopped and reprimanded by the police thrice while walking to my hostel from Egmore railway station.
Both times, they asked me to show ID, asked me why I was out so late, and one cop had the nerve to ask who I was going to meet!”, says Madhumitha, who works for an advertising agency in the city.
“Sometimes I finish work late, sometimes I meet up with friends for dinner and get back to the hostel by 10.30.
It is none of their business where I am coming from, their job is to keep the city safe and not impose a curfew-like environment,” added an infuriated Madhumitha.
A month ago, a woman journalist was stopped unnecessarily by a group of police in a patrolling van. “It was a Sunday and I was driving home with a friend and her 14 year old sister, after shopping all day.
The cops had parked their van in the middle of the road, and forced me to park on the side.
They then ordered the three of us to get out of the vehicle and started asking me irrelevant questions.
It was close to midnight and I was just a street away from my house—there was no sane reason for them to stop me—I was not talking on my cellphone, I had not consumed alcohol; our only crime was that we were young girls traveling late,” she says.
“I would not be so upset with being stopped and questioned, if the Chennai cops knew how to ask questions; how to talk to women.
They are rude and high-handed, they treat you like dirt,” she says, recollecting how she went home in tears the first time she was questioned by a policeman, but has since ‘hardened up’.
“When you really need them, they’re nowhere around. And when you don’t need them, they stop you and make a nuisance of themselves,” says Sapna Abraham, who is admittedly ‘sick and tired’’ of being harassed by cops in the city.
“Last week, I was walking my dog down the street in Saligramam when two young policemen stopped their patrol car and asked me for my name, where I was going and where I worked. If cops start behaving like roadside romeos, who will ensure our safety?” she says.
“As an activist, I can stand up for myself, but what about girls who are new to Chennai, girls who are timid, girls who cannot understand Tamil?”, she questions.
And the situation does not get better if you are accompanied by a male friend or relative, even more questions and leers come your way if you are traveling with a man, she adds.
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