Jisha Surya
First published on January 14
The meagre response being received by the Vanitha helpline of state police will give one an impression that everything is fair in the city. An ideal world, which is devoid of harassment against women, eve teasing or any other form of cruelty.
But women we meet in city would share some problems - be it sexual harassment, eve teasing or bad behaviour of auto, taxi driver etc. A few would say that the city is safe for women. But the number of women who are willing to seek help of Vanitha helpline service is negligible. The state police's international award-winning project - women's helpline - is getting fewer response now. Surprisingly, most of the women contacted by Expresso did not have an idea of the number 9995399953 and 1091. The number didn't find a place in their mobile phones.
According to Sub Inspector Thankam, who is in charge of the helpline, the number of calls to helpline are decreasing day by day. “When it was launched on May last year, we used to get around 30 calls per day, now it has been reduced to a few numbers. Still we get some calls from rural area, which are mostly of family disputes and mobile harassments,” she said. However, Thankam feels women are aware of the helpline number since lots of advertisements are given for it.
Women helpline service, which was working at the police control room, is now attached to the Vanitha police station. Some cops believe that this shifting has affected the working of the helpline service. “In case of mobile harassment, we used to call the culprits from the control room number and warn them. Now when we use the helpline number, it is not that effective. Warning wont became effective when the culprit get call from women cop, that too from a number other than control room number,” a police expressed the difficulty. Also the Vanitha helpline does not have a vehicle for night use. When needed, they are rope in the service of Control Room Vehicle.
Apart from all the above reasons, city women's reluctance to use the helpline service is the main reason for its ineffectiveness. Lakshmi, who is working at a Technopark based company, reaches her house in Killippalam only after 12 in the night. But she is unaware of the helpline number. A visual media journalist, who is aware of the helpline service, however said she did not have the number with her. Recently, a group of bank employees have given complaint to the police regarding the misbehaviour of auto drivers in the city. They too failed to use the service of women helpline number on time. A working woman who faced harassment in bus said that though she had the helpline number, she didn't want to make an 'issue'.
In a pilot study conducted in the city among women by Sakhi Women’s Resource Centre and Jagori, a New Delhi-based NGO working for women, recently has found that only 28 percent women had any knowledge of women's helpline service.
Without using the available redressal mechanism, evolution of a safer city will be a utopian dream.
Ends
First published on January 14
The meagre response being received by the Vanitha helpline of state police will give one an impression that everything is fair in the city. An ideal world, which is devoid of harassment against women, eve teasing or any other form of cruelty.
But women we meet in city would share some problems - be it sexual harassment, eve teasing or bad behaviour of auto, taxi driver etc. A few would say that the city is safe for women. But the number of women who are willing to seek help of Vanitha helpline service is negligible. The state police's international award-winning project - women's helpline - is getting fewer response now. Surprisingly, most of the women contacted by Expresso did not have an idea of the number 9995399953 and 1091. The number didn't find a place in their mobile phones.
According to Sub Inspector Thankam, who is in charge of the helpline, the number of calls to helpline are decreasing day by day. “When it was launched on May last year, we used to get around 30 calls per day, now it has been reduced to a few numbers. Still we get some calls from rural area, which are mostly of family disputes and mobile harassments,” she said. However, Thankam feels women are aware of the helpline number since lots of advertisements are given for it.
Women helpline service, which was working at the police control room, is now attached to the Vanitha police station. Some cops believe that this shifting has affected the working of the helpline service. “In case of mobile harassment, we used to call the culprits from the control room number and warn them. Now when we use the helpline number, it is not that effective. Warning wont became effective when the culprit get call from women cop, that too from a number other than control room number,” a police expressed the difficulty. Also the Vanitha helpline does not have a vehicle for night use. When needed, they are rope in the service of Control Room Vehicle.
Apart from all the above reasons, city women's reluctance to use the helpline service is the main reason for its ineffectiveness. Lakshmi, who is working at a Technopark based company, reaches her house in Killippalam only after 12 in the night. But she is unaware of the helpline number. A visual media journalist, who is aware of the helpline service, however said she did not have the number with her. Recently, a group of bank employees have given complaint to the police regarding the misbehaviour of auto drivers in the city. They too failed to use the service of women helpline number on time. A working woman who faced harassment in bus said that though she had the helpline number, she didn't want to make an 'issue'.
In a pilot study conducted in the city among women by Sakhi Women’s Resource Centre and Jagori, a New Delhi-based NGO working for women, recently has found that only 28 percent women had any knowledge of women's helpline service.
Without using the available redressal mechanism, evolution of a safer city will be a utopian dream.
Ends
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