Recent incidents of crimes against women in different parts of India have raised concerns about the safety of women.
According to many women here, Dehradun remains comparatively safer for women than other towns. Women cyber cell and anti-harassment cell have been established in the city by the Dehradun senior superintendent of police Kewal Khurana. These cells operate act against eve-teasers and others harassing women based on the complaints received. Khurana has also formed a special task squad to monitor stunt bikers and also those who pass lewd comments on social networking sites against women.
"There have been a total of 845 cases till now which have been directly registered with us. These are mainly domestic violence issues and some eve-teasing cases. A total of 155 cases have been registered in the SSP office since January which have been sent to the women helpline cell. Most of the cases are under trial," said a staff member of the Women Helpline Cell. However, there are many incidents of eve-teasing in the city. "Men pass nasty comments. When you speed up, they speed up. When you slow down, they slow down. I always ignore such eve-teasers or else they follow you wherever you go," says Dehradun resident Akansha Gahlot.
"You cannot wear shorts and walk out of the house without anxiety as people stare and pass lewd comments. Once I was in the market with my mother when a man passed by and commented on my figure. He was loud enough for my mother to hear it. We retreated back, but he just smiled and walked away into a crowd of people," said former Miss Uttarakhand second runner up Sara Anand.
There are also issues of harassment which are not brought to notice. "I was travelling in a local bus in the late evening. A man was trying to make physical contact continuously. At first, I ignored him believing that since the bus was fully crowded it may not be his fault but when the touching went on continuously I moved out of the bus even before I reached my destination," says a girl who wishes not be named.
Though the city police have put up the numbers of the helplines at some localities in the city, the awareness about this facility is still limited.