26 September,2013 07:25 AM IST | | MiD DAY Correspondent
Yesterday, this paper carried a report detailing how the Government Railway Police (GRP) is conducting operations to nab stuntmen on local trains. It also stated how the Railway Police caught 25 men for sexual harassment last week during their drives on the western and central lines.
The 25 offenders were arrested for abusing and sexually harassing women in running trains. A GRP official said that the drive was conducted between 6 pm and 10 pm because of the high number of complaints during that time.
Stations and local trains attract sexual harassment because of the crowd. Lost in the crowd, the woman usually has a difficult time identifying the person who groped her or verbally abused her. This drive is a sad commentary on our times but is badly needed to attest the problem at least in some small measure.
Post the action taken by the railways, those caught must be dealt with severity for molestation cannot be dealt with flippantly. Those nabbed must be made to feel the deep shame that unfortunately scars the victim.
On the issue of young men doing stunts in local trains, most of them were juveniles. Here, parents have to be roped in so that they can influence these boys about just how dangerous it is to perform these stunts. Posters can be put at stations of those who have lost their lives and limbs by doing stunts in local trains. A celebrity can be roped in to endorse the message that stunts in train are not fun, but foolish. Let this two-pronged drive be sustained; ad hoc action and sporadic checks will not stamp this out completely. More power to the police on this one. u00a0
