BHOPAL: ‘Akeli ladki khuli hui tijori ki tarah hoti hai.’ We all have heard and laughed at this famous dialogue from the movie Jab We Met and this dialogue fits so well in the stories of these girls.
Though, in the movie the dialogue was shown as a moral policing but in reality this is a fact. Girls who stay alone, commute alone dread what they might face the next moment. This fear sometimes also makes the girl dependent on others to go anywhere.
Padma Sharma, 22
“When I was new in Bhopal, I started commuting in buses and autos but three times the auto rickshaw drivers took me to some places other than my destination. And all three times I had to call my friends to take me back home. I don’t know what the drivers planned but it was very scary for me to be in such situation for three times. After that I completely stopped going anywhere alone. Now I ask my friends to drop me back to my hostel. Sometimes I feel it is bad of me to be dependent on someone but after seeing the type of things happening, it is very scary. I would say that it is not just me who is scared of going out alone but there are many like me who are scared because it is unsafe.”
Shipra Pasricha, 24
“When I was in hostel, every night a man came outside my window and masturbated. Initially, I didn’t understand what he was doing. Almost every day this happened. My hostel owner complained about it, after which this stopped. I changed my hostel after this and shifted to a PG accommodation. Strangely, this man started coming to this new PG of mine. It was then I realised he was following me. After this I avoided going out alone fearing what he might do. I don’t even know who he is. It is very annoying to find myself in this situation. I cannot tell my parents because they will panic and my complaint goes in vain because two three times the police did not find anyone and they asked what they could do if they didn’t see anyone.”
