A first person account of a harrowing time on a Noida street. A call to PCR brings no relief

New laws have been created keeping women’s safety in mind but a walk about town reveals the unsettling prevalent indifference. For a woman on the streets of Delhi-NCR, particularly after sundown, a harrowing time is still a moment away. Add to it police apathy and you have a perfect recipe for a disaster waiting to happen.

Let me bring to you my own experience recently in a posh area of Delhi-NCR. It was a balmy spring evening in end April. I was meeting up with a couple of old girlfriends and we lazed about the porch of Teasta, the tea shop, with cups of tea and coffee and an occasional plate of spicy roadside momos. The old teashop in Sector 37, Noida, with its variety of tea, quaint little porcelain teapots, miniature models of tea-making and coffee-brewing machines, seemed like a charming little escape from college pressure and other incidental realities.

We were a content bunch of young women who left the tea shop and decided to take a quiet walk through the Sector. Ten minutes later, at 9.35 p.m., contentment dissipated through thin air.

It all started with a white Skoda packed with young men. One boy, standing through the sunroof and deciding to be brazen and of course extremely ‘masculine’, shouted, “Looking hot baby!” to five surprised young women as they sped away in the comfort of their sedan.

By the time we all could understand that our privacy was being violated with such nonchalance, the car came back to us. This time they were in no hurry and went past us, spewing their brand of cheap humour and sadism, while we tried to walk as fast as we could to the main road. When I saw the light of a nearby restaurant and people milling about, I heaved a sigh of relief. The car disappeared.

Instantly I pulled out my phone and punched in the Police’s Women’s Helpline No. The phone went to full ring thrice, without anyone responding. I later found out that the number is applicable only to the area of Delhi and not NCR. The reasoning of this beats me since their posters are up in all the Metro trains that travel right from the heart of Noida to the bustle of Gurgaon.

The next option was to call Police Control Room. I punched in 100 and finally a lady officer responded. As I explained to her my problem, the only reaction I could extract from her was “Toh?” I explained to her that what had happened was an offence under The Criminal Amendment Act, 2013. In an extremely bored tone, she passed on a number I had to call in Noida.

The number turned out to be a non-existent one! When I called PCR again, she was bent on defending the phone number which did not exist. She offered no alternate number in spite of pleading her, and hung up the phone.

We finally returned home. I filed an online complaint at the Police Station of Sec-39, Noida, describing the car, the number plate and the offences under which they could be booked which included rash driving in a public way to making sexually coloured remarks. It is more than a month now and I’m yet to hear from them.

What if I had been walking alone that day? What if there was no restaurant or people around? I guess I would have received a few public apologies from political bigwigs, a candlelit vigil and maybe a new law named after the pseudonym the media would affectionately bestow on me.