Social media reacted with horror to HT’s story about Uttar Pradesh recharge shops selling women’s numbers.
On Friday morning, HT broke a story about the crucial takeaway from four years of 1090, Uttar Pradesh’s call centre for women’s troubles: recharge shops in the state sell phone numbers of their female clients to men who use them for stalking, harassment and abuse. Ninety percent of the over 6 lakh calls made by women across UP on 1090 were about being harassed by men on mobile phone. The UP police doesn’t yet have a concrete solution for this epidemic of abuse. Buying or selling of phone numbers hasn’t yet landed anyone in UP in jail, although it qualifies for punishment under breach of trust and abetment of phone stalking. Twitter reacted with horror.
Mobile recharge shops in Uttar Pradesh sell phone numbers of their female clients to men who use them for stalking, harassment and abuse. (Representative image)(Ashok Dutta/HT Photo)