A new scourge is spreading its tentacles fast and wide due to unregulated sale and use of spy cameras that are installed secretly in houses, shopping malls and hotel rooms to record women in their private moments.
Several videos of women filmed secretly when they were in bathrooms, changing rooms or bedrooms through secretly-placed spy cameras and uploaded on various websites have created havoc and traumatised many women. Some instances were reported in the city and few complaints were registered in the police stations. But no action has been initiated so far to regulate the use of spy cameras that violate the privacy of women, says G. Varalakshmi, president of Heaven Homes Society, an NGO that works for the empowerment and welfare of women and children.
PIL filed in HC
Raising the issue in a campaign mode, Ms. Varalakshmi told The Hindu that they have launched ‘Anti-Red Eye’, a national-level campaign to end the scourge of spy cameras. She had also filed a public interest litigation in the High Court in 2017 to bring to focus the rampant and unregulated use of spy cameras in the two Telugu States.
The court had issued notices to Home Secretaries of the Centre, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in September, 2017 and had asked them to explain their stand on the issue.
“Spy cameras have no known use other than for security, defence and law enforcement. Then why are they available in the open market both online and offline without any regulation or licensing system in force?” she asks.
But even a year later, there is no let up in the sale of spy cameras, she says.
Spy cameras that can even be hidden in soap boxes, buttons and wall clocks are available freely online and local markets in the city. They are available from ₹300 onwards. The issue got highlighted when Union Minister Smriti Irani noticed a spy camera in a shopping mall a couple of years ago, but their unregulated sale and illegal use continues, Ms.Varalakshmi says.
The NGO demands strict regulation of sale and distribution of spy cameras, both online and offline, throughout India by bringing out a legislation; fixing the onus on the managements of malls, hostels and hotels; to conduct routine checks to detect spy cameras on their premises by their staff or outsiders; booking offenders recording women secretly using spy cameras under non-bailable sections of CrPC; awarding severe punishment to those making or sharing obscene photos or videos of any woman without her knowledge.
Citizens can give a missed call to + 91 80 9925 9925 in support of the petition to the Union Government for a legislation against the misuse of spy cameras, Ms. Varalakshmi says.
