Drishti lifeguards gets body cameras to tackle harassment of women at beaches

Panaji: Drishti Marine equipped its beach marshals with body cameras to keep watch on illegal activities along the beaches, including instances of foreign women being inappropriately touched and photographed.

Currently, around 70 beach marshals are posted at five popular beaches—Baga, Calangute, Candolim, Colva and Benaulim.


Officials told TOI that Drishti marshals and lifesavers have responded to multiple incidents of women tourists being harassed, and the footage of the perpetrators was also shared with the concerned authrorities.

The follow-up procedure of two harassment incidents at Baga beach was captured on a body camera of marshals making it one of the early instances where both the scene of the incident and the victim’s account were captured live on video.

Drishti said the move is part of the state’s efforts to enhance beach safety and also prevent illegalities along the shoreline.

Drishti told the department of four separate incidents where foreign women were approached and inappropriately touched last week.

Two cases were reported at Baga, where, in the first case on Feb 5, two men from Telangana harassed a foreign woman near the shoreline after she refused to take a selfie, with one of them even attempting to put his arm around her and kiss her.

“Lifesavers intervened promptly and alerted beach marshal Laxmi Kholkar, who arrived with a police constable. The woman was escorted to the lifesaver tower and the two tourists were taken to the police station. A second complaint involving harassment of Russian women tourists was reported at Baga beach. Our team intervened and informed the police.

As the victims declined to file a formal complaint, the domestic tourists involved were issued a stern warning and allowed to leave,” said Drishti in a statement.

A similar incident was reported at Colva beach on Friday night when a group of 7-8 tourists from Karnataka were found filming and photographing Russian women without their consent. Lifesavers intervened immediately and handed the men over to the Goa police.

On Sunday, lifesavers at Patnem noticed five men from Bihar filming a couple from Pune without their consent. The couple was escorted to safety, and the men were handed over to the police.