Keeping an eye on roadside Juliets in Kolkata

KOLKATA: In what can be termed as gender equality of a different kind, Kolkata Police will have a special team of policewomen to cater to the growing complaints of, you heard right, ‘Adam-teasers’, the female counterparts of the local Romeos. 

Rising incidences of young men falling prey to lecherous approaches by inebriated women has prompted the setting up of the special team, who will patrol the streets and take action against those indulging in teasing young men. However, the police do not want to project the new squad as a rescue team, and officially the team will only limit itself to controlling unruly drunken women creating a nuisance in public.

Assistant commissioner in charge of the women’s cell of the Kolkata Police, Subhra Shil said during the recently concluded Durga Puja, it was noticed that a number of women were misbehaving publicly in a drunken state.

Their behaviour, besides causing inconvenience for the public, had enough ingredients to lure youths to either abuse them or molest them, she said. “In that case, there would have been a much bigger trouble. So we intend to control such women before it snowballs into anything bigger,” she said.

The new squad would be an all-woman team comprising two inspectors, two sub-inspector, five assistant sub-inspectors and few constables. Their duty would be to keep a watch on women at gatherings at entertainment hubs of the city. The new squad will also keep a watch on women visiting nightclubs.