Haryana Police aims at helping girls overcome fear, file complaints as part of Operation Durga
The police officials told India Today that in Haryana there is a tendency not to report the cases of eve teasing.
Days after Operation Durga was launched to curb eve-teasing, the Haryana Police has identified the main culprit of the menace- victims not reporting the cases.
The police officials told India Today that in Haryana there is a tendency not to report the cases of eve teasing.
The records show that the number of eve teasing cases which were 251 in 2015 came down to 160 in 2016. This year between January and March only 26 cases have been reported which means the victims are not reporting the cases.
Additional Director General of Police, OP Singh said, "One of the objectives of Operation Durga is to educate girls to report cases and help them overcome their fears."
'OPERATION DURGA NOT ABOUT MORAL POLICING'
The operation has been launched in all 22 districts and is being run by 21 women police stations with the help of 824 police officials out of which more than 600 are females. Apart from this, the flying squads have been provided with 140 vehicles to nab the eve teasers.
Haryana Police officials say that Durga operation will be different from Uttar Pradesh's anti-Romeo squad as the police will not harass couples.
Meanwhile, the flying squads today scanned public places in various districts and found romeos standing near bus stops, parks, cinema halls and girls colleges. A boy was also caught clicking photos of girls at Kurukshetra bus stop.
Earlier in April this year, the state police had rounded up more than 70 youths in various parts of Haryana on charges of eve-teasing.
"Operation Durga is not about moral policing. There will be no reign of terror. Initially, we will warn the youth about the ill effects of eve-teasing and how they will be booked under Section 509 and 294 of IPC and they will not be getting any character certificates. We will also be monitoring the incidents through CCTV cameras." OP Singh said.
WHAT IS YASH?
However, the first day of Operation Durga resulted in cases where police officials were caught harassing innocent boys found roaming at bus stops.
Haryana police today also announced a social media campaign to encourage state's youths to join the movement against eve-teasing as volunteers.
The campaign has been named as YASH (Youths Against Sexual Harassment). The police has also started a Twitter handle besides a Facebook page to encourage people to report the cases of eve-teasing by uploading photos and videos as evidence.