The Women’s Helpline (1091), which was flooded with calls on Friday, also registered eight formal complaints of harassment and domestic violence here on International Women’s Day.
Among the hundreds of calls it received, one was a formal complaint on harassment by a high-ranking officials in the Sericulture Department in Tumkur. Other complaints pertained to domestic violence or abuse at home and harassment on the street, helpline officials told The Hindu . Many of these calls also had girls complain of harassment over phone.
Sadly, even this helpline is not immune to prank calls — at least 100 — where people make blank calls or seek irrelevant information.
On the three lines the helpline has, the phones ring incessantly all day, said the official. The helpline puts some of the more serious cases on to the jurisdictional police, while the others they counsel on ways to file a complaint. “Our main attempt is to get the police to reach the spot within 15 minutes.”
Arthi B.S., a police constable who works at the helpline, praised it “because it gives a medium for women to express their suppressed voice”. “As a woman, I am happy that I am able to help other women,” she added.
