College students team up to tame teasers
College students ask Mumbaikars to stand up for each other, promote women’s helpline 103.
If the Amboli eve-teasing incident that resulted in two deaths and created much outrage, left you scarred, some college students are trying to ensure that there won’t be a round two.
The Rotaract Clubs of HR College and Mumbai Mulund South have joined hands to start a Chhedega Toh Chodenge Nahi initiative against the menace.
The campaign kicks off tomorrow with a street play at Dadar station and will push Mumbaikars to stand up for one another. Women’s helpline 103 will also be promoted along with various self-defense techniques.
“We wanted to begin the campaign immediately after the Amboli incident but we couldn’t get permission at that time. So we decided to start off now, after having all the permissions for Dadar station in place,” says Dinesh Sajnani, project head, Rotaract Club of HR College, and a SYBCom student.
Tomorrow, commuters at Dadar station can watch the students perform their skit against eve teasing. Focusing on two sides of the same story, the play starts off with a woman being teased and no one standing up for her till the narrator intervenes and asks Mumbaikars to stand up for each other.
The second part shows the same woman being harassed but this time, one person takes initiative and steps in. Soon, others join him to stop the menace, with students also helping promote women’s helpline, 103.
After enacting the play, girls in the group will enter the second-class ladies’ compartments and discuss legal options that women can pursue to punish offenders.
They will also suggest self-defense techniques like spraying deo into the teaser’s eye or poking their eyes with nails to escape a sudden attack. To sustain the campaign and continue creating awareness, these plays will be performed at a new railway station and college every month.
“Next month, we will perform at CST and HR College,” says Sajnani.