MUMBAI, India - Fed up with daily sexual harassment of women on their beat, a team
of female constables in India have taken to incognito motorbike patrols to
banish loitering men from public places.
Jyotipriya Singh, additional superintendent of police in the western city of
Kolhapur, led the initiative with her deputy last week, scouring the streets
and targeting youths hanging around for no reason, especially on college
campuses.
“We took a drive and checked various public places and we went in civilian
dress so we could see who was loitering around,” Singh told AFP. “Women were
getting lewd remarks.”
Video footage on local news websites shows young men running away from the
female plainclothes police and their male 
colleagues, who chase and slap the
miscreants in return.
colleagues, who chase and slap the
miscreants in return.
Singh said they took action against 88 males — either by giving warnings to
them or their parents, or alerting other local police stations.
“The people are so happy about the drive, as they are daily getting
harassment from these bystanders,” Singh said.
Sex crimes in India have been in the spotlight since the fatal gang-rape of
a student in New Delhi in December sparked nationwide anger, which was
reignited last week with another gang-rape of a young woman in Mumbai.
Earlier this year, India passed a tougher law against rape, but Singh
strongly believes that preventive action against sexual harassment is key.
She has called on police stations in the city in Maharashtra state to raise
awareness, 
hold workshops and encourage women to come forward about harassment.
hold workshops and encourage women to come forward about harassment.
The idea of the patrol, she said, was to check these initiatives are
working, but she remained tight-lipped about the timing of future crackdowns,
saying that a “surprise element” is important to be effective.
Source: AFP
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