A day after the brutal murder of a 24-year-old woman at the Nungambakkam Railway Station, women commuters at suburban stations were noticeably apprehensive and anxious.
Even as the chatter of the women who boarded at Guindy was drowned out by the sounds of trains, the conversation in the women’s compartment was dominated by the murder of IT employee Swathi S.
“I return home sometimes after 9 p.m. after selling flowers and there are often no others who disembark with me at the Saidapet station. How safe is it?” asked S. Ponni, a flower seller.
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On Platform 2 at Nungambakkam, the scene of Friday’s horrific crime, several women waiting for trains said that they had been ‘somewhat scared’ after hearing about the news. “For such an incident to occur and for no one to have done anything — that is the most shocking part,” said a mother of two young women who was travelling to Tambaram. The city is becoming unsafe, she added, with rising crime.
“I have never seen any security personnel here,” said another commuter, adding that she felt scared to board a train on Saturday. “But the problem is this is an important station. So I have to come here from time to time,” said a college student.
N. Vidya, an engineer who takes the south line from Chetpet to Tambaram, said that her usual train journey on Saturday morning had been a grim one.
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“Everyone kept talking about the incident and we might all be in danger even in daylight. We are all cautious when we travel at night but even waiting during the rush hour this morning made many of us uncomfortable,” she said.
“Apart from stray incidents where young boys attempt to cross the tracks, there has never been any major incident where women have been harassed or assaulted,” an official at the station said, when asked about how safe it was for women there.