The euphoria around Adityanath Yogi’s elevation to the chief ministerial post seems to have struck the internet by storm even as newsmakers are going dizzy with his striding pace. Yogi – the no nonsense CM is dashing like a whirlwind in a Nayak style that has jolted many from their deep slumbers that people cannot help being smitten by the saffron spillover.
True to his poll promise the first thing that Yogi is focusing on is to revive law and order and make women feel safe in the state, to effect which, anti-Romeo squads have been set up since UP has been reeling under lawless notoriety with appalling crimes against women!
Romeo might have been a great lover, but the decades of romanticism with the idea of being a Romeo surmised by the many celluloid woods that overtly objectify women and promote lust as love has emboldened sexual predators prowling out as roadside Romeos who think that every other woman walking on the street is just another accessible commodity! Stalking, leering, eve-teasing, molestations are a harrowing harassment that every other woman _ minor or married, must have faced at some or the other point of time, not just in UP but in other parts of the country too. But a look at the surge in the chronological crime rate of UP is very alarming!
- As per a newsbyte report in 2016 alone between March 15th to 18th August, in a span of just 5 months 1012 cases of rape and 4500 harassment cases were filed in UP.
- National Crime Records shows UP to be the state with highest crimes but ironically the per capita crime rate reduces due to their large population which cynically makes UP the 3rd safest state (on paper).
- The NCRB (National crimes record bureau) states that Uttar Pradesh is the most unsafe place for women to be living in.
- In 2014, some 38467 cases filed were crimes against women!
- A CAG report on the rising crimes on women in UP revealed that in a comparative data analysis between 2010 to 2015, the crime rate had risen to 61%
- 1619 minor girls aged between 11- 16 were raped in 2014-2015 increasing from a number of 1033 rapes in 2012-2014.
The number of women police personal is negligible and the recommendations by the Home ministry to increase women forces to 33% were ignored in the past. The acute shortage of police personal coupled with steady culture of growing goondaism nourished by the past polity under an ecosystem where there is no fear of police nor respect for women, Uttar Pradesh today tops the list in violent crimes against women where even CAG has expressed that it is bound to lose hopes if countering measures are not spearheaded immediately.
Today when one thinks about Uttar Pradesh, some of the things that come to mind are the horrendous scenes of the Badaun gangrape and murder of 2 minor dalit girls who were hung from a tree for all to see, the viral video of goons molesting and attacking a married woman in the busy markets of Mainpuri in broad day light still sends shivers across the nation. The gangrape of mother-daughter in Bulandshehr, the alleged rape of a judge in Aligarh, the gangrape of a teenager in Kanuaj in front of her family members, the gangrape of a married woman in a bus in front of her 3 year old daughter and many more such incidents makes one shudder to think of a travel in UP, then what speak of the locals who have to wade through such lustful gazes each day.
The National Commission for women claimed that 60% of criminal cases received are from UP, remember these are official numbers in a society where burking is very high where FIRs are not easily filed and in a society where people shy away from reporting about the crimes in the first place!
This being the ground reality, the decisive step taken by Shri Yogi to counter the horrendous sexual harassment of women by grouping police personnel into dedicated teams to check on the predators on the prowl is a welcome move. And the fact that these squads consist of trained police personnel and not any unidentified moral policing groups should be seen as a much needed refreshing relief. Also a dedicated catchy name anti-Romeo squads perhaps lets people know where to seek help!
But it is intriguing and disheartening that many media houses and even many women journos who until recently were very vocal demanding about women safety measures or the lack of it are today acutely apprehensive about Anti-Romeo squad and are sensationalizing that it might harass an innocent man or that minority men may be subject to unnecessary harassment and that the whole intent may soon morph into moral policing mania.
It is also opined that the whole anti-Romeo exercise may convolute the free space for men and women to interact freely. While it is no rocket science to distinguish between a case of sexual harassment and that of a genuine consensual approach, the fear mongering by the media at this piloting stage is totally unwarranted because even in many western countries victimization surveys are conducted by forming separate squads to ascertain the stalking statistics for efficient policy decisions and Yogi’s decision about setting up of women safety squads are an aftermath of such an elaboration on the data collected over the years from various sources including news reports, public grievances and many direct interactions with the victims. So to thwart and belittle this well-meaning initiative in the name of opposing all that is saffron with rabble rousing journalism would be a lost opportunity to take control of the deteriorating law and order where women dread to step out. Also if love jihad is a fiction story written in saffron ink, why then is anybody worrying about minority folks being framed? Perhaps it is the right-time to encash their saffron antagonism by spearheading the cause of a genuinely secular nation by banning religious conversions in India.
While it is true that no innocent should ever be punished but whether we agree or disagree the fact remains that no law in the present form of the constitution is foolproof, the many elastic cases of delayed justices stretching over 20+ years are proof of the same. But should we not ramp up the obsolete practices to resurrect the fallen hopes? Should we never pronounce anyone guilty in the fear that the judge may be wrong? In a scenario where in spite of the existence of many elaborate laws meant for protecting women, if rapes and sexual harassment are increasingly being seen as normal in any society where mindsets have been tuned in to obtuse comments like ‘boys will be boys’ and those of Abu Azmi’s, where rapists get pardoned under the same set of laws, then it is definitely time to relook at more reassuring ways to take control of the filth and fearlessness that has been brewed outlandishly in the past regimes. The Anti-Romeo squad is one such measure to inspire faith in law and order amongst its bereaved men and womenfolk.
It is a sham that journos like Saba Naqvi try to fit in a minority card even in grave matters of defunct law and order problems at the cost of mocking the common and the ordinary womenfolk who did not have any representatives who cared enough for their safety. A Shoba De sitting in the cozy comfort of her plush interiors may tweet all day even without the slightest understanding of the gravity of the matter on ground and ask as to why there is no Juliet squad, but does she even realize that somewhere in the villages of Pahadpur, Ghatak and Byonda near the Bareily district of UP, a 100 young girls who walk 3kms and then commute by a boat to reach their school have recently refused to go to school. The reason being sexual harassment enroute to their school by men who constantly make lewd remarks and gesture intimidatingly by splashing water and striping in front of them! It is this kind of patriarchal misogyny that the Yogi government has dared to take on to inspire a rare hope among young girls who had chosen to shut up and stay home rather than go to school at the risk of being raped and ridiculed.