Sudha (name changed), a college-going girl from Bhuvanagiri, has had a nightmarish experience with an online dating app which she had downloaded out of ignorance.
Since she had installed the app, she has been the victim of continuous stream of harassing texts and calls from multiple numbers. Unable to bear the torture, she lodged a complaint with the She Teams functioning within the Rachakonda Commissionerate’s purview.
The police were privy to some startling facts revealed by the six young men they arrested based on the information that the girl had provided. The youth, four of whom were minors, took the police and the counsellors on a tour of the virtual world on their smart phones where women are but mute objects of stalking.
“We were surprised to know that the app will make personal information accessible to random people within stipulated radius,” informed chief functionary of the Bhumika Women’s Collective, K. Satyavathi, who dealt with the case.
Downloading the online dating apps without awareness about its purpose and function could prove to be quite pesky for vulnerable young girls, as they are being used by anonymous men indulging in sexual harassment here, as against the western world where dating is a regular phenomenon.
Some other apps, as shared by the accused, if downloaded, give access to the victim’s pictures inside the phone. The app could be downloaded without the victim’s knowledge, as it remains invisible in the phone. The pictures are then morphed and shared on porn websites.
The She Teams within the purview of Rachakonda Commissionerate are getting about 30 to 40 complaints a week about online harassment. “Many are from rural areas such as Bhuvanagiri, Yadagirigutta and Yapral, where the offenders are not even aware of the repercussions of their acts. A sizeable number of them are minors,” Ms. Satyavathi said.
Other portals of online harassment include WhatsApp and Facebook, which are rampantly used by youth. Photos taken in compromising positions when things were hunky dory in a relationship, are posted in common groups to embarrass the girls, or used to threaten and blackmail them. Most of the time, parents of the young offenders are found to be agriculture labourers.
“We wouldn’t find any connection between the parents’ background and the appearance of the boys who look well-off, ride bikes and use latest models of smart phones,” Ms. Satyavathi said.
The Rachakonda Police Commissioner, Mahesh Bhagwat, said the Commissionerate received eight to 10 complaints every day on its WhatsApp portal, of which five to six were lodged by girls facing sexual harassment. A majority of the offenders are in the age group of 16 to 25 years.
“We book cases under the Nirbhaya Act, which criminalises all instances of stalking and also IT Act,” Mr. Bhagwat said. As per the rule book, juvenile offenders should be produced before the Juvenile Justice Board, but the police have engaged a professional psycho-social counsellors to deal with the young boys indulging in minor instances of sexual harassment.
“We are involving parents and family members too during counselling, and have seen reduction in the number of repeat offences owing to this,” said Mr. Bhagwat.
Published - October 21, 2017 11:20 pm IST
