‘Over 1,000 calls to women’s helpline in 4 days’

Four days after Yuva Sena launched a 24-hour helpline for women facing harassment; it claims to have received over 1,000 calls already and that it is carrying out "parallel governance" for the safety of women due to the inadequacy of the current law and order enforcement system. A majority of complaint calls have been about misbehaviour and eve-teasing of women at suburban railway stations and BEST buses.

In the wake of the recent cases of rape and molestation being reported and the public outrage against the same, the youth wing of the Shiv Sena launched the helpline in Mumbai, Pune, Kolhapur and Satara on December 28. Yuva Sena member Samadhan Sarvankar said the number of calls from distressed women has been the highest in Mumbai followed by Pune. Over 50 'Yuva Brigades' comprising 10 Yuva Sena members each have been responding to the complaints.

"We have already received more than 1,000 calls in all for all the four regions within just four days. In a number of cases, action was also taken. A girl was being stalked by a man at Dadar railway station for more than a week who had started following her till her place. She called us up and we alerted Dadar police, who took action in the matter," said Sarvankar.

The helpline numbers are 9004797777, 8097003407 and 9967141777 while those for north Mumbai are 7738717273, 9867012697 and 8097040973 and those for Mulund are 8082111123, 8352022221, 9833325532 and 9920369090. On Monday, the Yuva Brigade in Girgaum helped a girl register her case with the cyber cell about a fake profile being created on Facebook in her name.

Spokesperson Rahul Narvekar said the main objective behind starting the helpline was to fill up the lacunae in the legal recourse.

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