After an hour-long counselling by counsellors at the Vasavya Mahila Mandali (VMM), five youths of the about 30 persons who were nabbed by the ‘Mahila Rakshak’ teams of the city police, opened up in repentance.
At the ‘Mahila Mitra’ group counselling sessions headed by VMM founder and former MP Chennupati Vidya, they reportedly accepted their mistake and vowed not to commit the same again.
G. Ramu, a daily wage worker, was the first one to come forward and speak before the media, counsellors, police and other offenders. A youngster, Srinivas, who graduated in B. Tech and had taken the recently held main exam for police constable recruitment, too repented. He even gave a short lecture on how responsible the youth of AP should be in this time of financial crisis.
Another person named Srinivas, a worker in a footwear manufacturing unit, accepted that he made a mistake by standing on the roadside.
On the flipside, many others claimed that they did not do any wrong during further sessions that were held in smaller groups based on the age group and marital status.
Two of them told the counsellors that they had not done anything except standing on the road with colleagues, and worried that this incident may affect their marriage plans scheduled this month.
“Some claimed that they did not commit any mistake and there is no way to go back and prove innocence. Some of them may be true, but we will counsel them accordingly in further sessions,” a counsellor told The Hindu . “Ninety-five per cent of the offenders are agreeing to their mistakes and the rest are claiming innocence. A man, father of two teenage daughters, repented during the counselling session. A few others are not wishing to explain what they did,” said Vemuri Satyavati, member of Krishna District Child Welfare Committee.
Earlier, Dr. Satyavati highlighted the sufferings of women due to mistreatment by men. “You think passing comments is a trivial issue. Thinking thus is the biggest mistake and many girls drop out of school only due to eve teasers,” she told the accused.
Speaking on the overall scenario, B. Keerthi of the VMM said eve-teasing had become a trivial issue for the youth, and there were several factors such as peer pressure that easily get them into harassing women in different ways. We were told by police that a youth who just took part in rituals related to his mother's death also indulged in eve-teasing at the Bhavani Ghat and was nabbed by the Rakshak team, she said.
At the end, a senior police officer who addressed the eve-teasers and Rakshak teams asked the police to ensure that only those who were caught red-handed were nabbed and booked.
