Eve-teasing and misbehaving rank first in harassment cases against women: SHE team report

Hyderabad: In a recent report released by the SHE team, eve-teasing and misbehaving ranked first among harassment faced by women in the twin cities. The report, which collected data from October 2014 till September 2019, also shows that harassment over the phone is the second most prevalent form of abuse, closely followed by stalking.

Five years after the inception of SHE teams in 2014, 3885 cases were registered under teasing and misbehaving, 3784 cases were registered under harassment over phone, while 2197 cases were recorded under stalking.

Sheik Saleema, Rachakonda SHE team head and Additional Deputy Commissioner for Police (Crimes) said that women prefer SHE teams over the normal police primarily because they are easily approachable and they do not re-victimise the survivor with their procedures. “In most of the cases, the survivor knows the accused personally, which is why the issue gets complicated with repeated harassment, stalking and threatening. In such a scenario, we take care not to engage in victim-blaming and provide counselling or monitoring, whenever required,” she said. The report reveals that in 10,834 cases, the accused had been warned and let off, while counselling and monitoring has been provided for 14,476 cases.

The police officer also pointed out that SHE teams keep the identity of the survivor confidential. The survivors also have the liberty to choose the meeting place, which ensures that no one will be intimidated by the procedures, thus encouraging victims to come forward to report.

The approachability of the SHE teams has helped most women to directly register their complaints at the station, or with the official concerned. The report shows that most number of women recorded their complaints directly. Interestingly, WhatsApp follows as the second most popular medium through which the women have submitted their complaints. While 10,616 complaints were registered directly, 8867 cases were registered through WhatsApp.

The data also revealed that most number of crimes were committed by men between the age of 25-30 years. While 3859 cases were registered against men belonging to the age of 25-30 years, 1404 cases have been registered against those belonging to the age group of 36-50 years.