Women unsafe as Bengal crime graph shoots

According to the State Crime Record Bureau (SCRB),in 2010,27,390 cases of crime against women were registered in several police stations in Bengal. The record with SCRB states that there were 2,160 incidents of rape,128 incidents of gangrape,20 cases of murder after rape,1,319 incidents of attempt to rape,1,405 incidents of molestation and 47 cases of eve-teasing were registered. Among the 47 cases of eve-teasing,the police could arrest only 27 persons.

Significantly,there are several instances in which the police do not even register complaints of eve-teasing. A senior police officer of the women cell in Kolkata Police on conditions of anonymity said: “Everyday,we get several cases of eve-teasing,but at times there is an effort to show these as minor issues. Cases of eve-teasing are registered if the complainant is ready to become a witness. But in most of the cases,the victims request us not to register the case fearing social stigma,” said the officer.

However,in recent times it has been seen that law keepers are mostly accused either of being directly involved in the case or for being negligent.

For instance, a couple of weeks ago,two jawans of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) were arrested for allegedly indulging in eve-teasing. According to a complaint lodged by the victims,two boarders of Visva-Bharati,they were returning to the campus on a scooty from an outing when the CISF personnel followed them on a motorcycle. The duo allegedly harassed the girls with lewd remarks and tried to molest them inside the university campus.

Another case of eve teasing was reported from Kharagpur,in which Counter Insurgency Force (CIF) jawans teased a woman constable of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) at Kharagpur station. The constable,Munnu Rai,was on duty in front of the ticket counter of the station where five CIF jawans were in a queue to buy tickets and were behaving in an unruly manner. When Rai asked them to behave,one of the jawans, Somnath Das,teased her and verbally abused her besides taking her photograph on his mobile phone. Rai then informed the RPF (East post) officer-in-charge in Kharagpur. Within minutes five RPF jawans arrived at the spot and severely beat up the CIF jawans and took them in their custody.

Subsequently,the Additional Superintendent of Police,CIF,V Solomon Neskumar,rushed to the RPF (east post) and got the jawans out of RPF custody. The government railway police registered two cases – one against the RPF jawan and the other against Neskumar.

In December,2010,a 17-year-old schoolgirl was raped and murdered at Dadpur in North 24-Parganas. The victim,a Class XI student who used to give tuitions to manage her school fees,was abducted on her way home,raped in a field and strangled. None has been convicted in the case as yet.

In November,2010,a minor girl was allegedly raped by a group of miscreants in her school in Howrah. The police,however,did not register the complaint of the family. Later,when the girl was admitted in Calcutta Medical College and Hospital,a team of West Bengal State Women Commission (WBSWC) met her and submitted a report to the state,the police arrested an accused. However,he was released on bail within 48 hours.

The lax attitude of the police and administration in curbing crime against women has pushed the state to the second position in the country in terms of highest number of crime cases against women. As per the statistics of the National Crime Record Bureau,in 2009 West Bengal was at the second rank with 23,307 cases registered against women. Among the cities,Kolkata was at 10th rank with 892 cases of crime against women in 2009.

Bharati Mutsuddi,member of WBSWC said: “Very few cases of eve-teasing,molestation and rape come into the fore. Moreover,the provision in law against the eve-teasers and the molesters is very soft. The sections which are slapped against them are bailable. For curbing the menace,the police should be more vigilant in the respective police station areas.”