Rampant eve-teasing raises dropout menace in Bareilly

BAREILLY: In a fresh case of harassment by local goons, a girl filed a complaint with the office of the senior superintendent of police (SSP) here alleging that two boys in the area have been harassing her whenever she is on her way to school. They also resorted to abusive and objectionable behaviour when she tried to confront them. So menacing was their behavior that the girl has been thinking of giving up her studies.The area has seen numerous such cases in the recent past.
The girl’s father alleged that repeated complaints to the local police have fallen on deaf ears, following which they were forced to register a complaint with the SSP. “The local goons are after her life. They harass her in every possible way. At times they play loud music when my daughter is studying on the terrace of our house. Any objection draws an aggressive reaction. They have assaulted our family members as well,” he said.
“Given the ordeal I have to undergo on a daily basis, I am having second thoughts about continuing my studies. My parents are always worried because of the goons’ behavior when I tried to confront them. The local police has ignored all our complaints,” the girl said. Several such cases have been reported in the recent past from Dhaneli and Paharpur villages under Shergarh police station and Fazilpur under Nawabganj police station areas here.
Nearly 50 girl students from classes VI to XII at a village school in Dhaneli had collectively dropped out in August this year, fed up of continuous harassment by a gang of youths on a desolate 2 km stretch from their homes to school. The scared girls and their parents told TOI that the gang has become bolder over the past few months and they were afraid they would be kidnapped if they continued going to school.
In a similar incident reported by TOI last year, 200 girls from a dozen villages under Meerganj tehsil in Bareilly district had stopped going to school for fear of being sexually harassed by local youths near a river on the way to school. After the incident was reported, the government has started constructing a school in the village and also announced that a bridge would be built, and the miscreants were arrested.
Speaking to TOI, superintendent of police (SP) (rural) Yamuna Prasad said, “There is zero tolerance for crime against women. In the recent case of goons harassing the girl, I have given strict instructions to circle officer (CO) Nawabganj to take up the matter on a priority basis and take stern action against the guilty.”