Woman cop turns to FB seeking action against senior: Just the tip of the iceberg?

At a time when sexual harassment is in prime focus, for the government, law enforcing agencies and public like, this story from Meerut is enough reason for your faith to wobble. A policewoman in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, faced with sexual harassment from a senior officer in the force, had to take to social media to get her grievances heard. According to The Times of India, after the 29-year-old officer’s complaints fell on deaf ears, she decided to create a Facebook page that spoke about her plight. The page garnered close to 6,000 likes in a day in the process raising hopes that the the lady sub-inspector’s case will finally be heard. The SI, who had spoke to The Times of India, said, “After my colleagues refused to listen to my complaints, the only recourse left for me to tell the people the truth was social media." According to her, the senior officer had called her to his office on 23 April and gave her a chit of paper which had on obscene proposition. When he admonished the senior and tried to leave his room, the accused tried to molest her. Following the incident, TOI, says, nobody listened to her and a complaint was lodged only in June, long after the incident took place. [caption id=“attachment_1619997” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] ![Image used for representational purposes only. AFP.](https://images.firstpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/police-indiaAFP.jpg) Image used for representational purposes only. AFP.[/caption] The female SI’s ordeal, however, is worrying because it is symptomatic of lodging a sexual harassment complaint with the Indian police in the first place. Given that several instances of sexual exploitation take place within a stifling power hierarchy, it is very easy for the more powerful accused to rubbish a victim’s claims. If it is difficult for even a police woman to get authorities to redress her grievances, we can imagine how difficult it must be for a civilian to gather her courage and lodge a complaint like that. Actually, the whole idea of approaching the police - given they don’t have much of a police-friendly image in India - discourages people from lodging formal complaints. However, the female SI’s complaint might be just scratching the tip of the iceberg. Because, the police don’t always act promptly on a complaint against one of their own herd. For example an article from earlier this year shows that out of the 60 complaints of sexual harassment filed against the Delhi Police, many were anonymous. The report doesn’t specify how many complaints were acted on. In another case, a girl in Chandigarh had alleged that five police personnel had taken turns to rape her and then forced her to take contraceptive pills. Later, her cousin, a teenage boy alleged harassment by the Chandigarh police force. However, it is the National Crime Records Bureau data on complaints against policemen, which is way more alarming. In 2013, the NCRB data shows, that out of the 51,120 complaints that were received against the police in India, 15,830 cases had an enquiry instituted. The data doesn’t reveal what results these inquiries revealed. However, it notes that 26,740 of these cases were dropped and dismissed as false by the police. Three thousand eight hundred and ninety six cases were referred for departmental action. Only 799 cases reached the actual judiciary. It is important to note here that all these cases were not sexual harassment cases and dealt with complaints of varied nature. However, unless we are to consider that Indian civilians don’t consider taking legal action against the police as a challenging task, the numbers a little worrying. Given that more than half of the complaints were dismissed as false, one is forced to wonder what is true for India? That lodging complaints against the police is a national pastime in India - given that more than 50,000 complaints were lodged in year. Or like is evident from the case of the lady SI, getting the police force to act against one of their own personnel is more difficult than we had imagined.

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Woman cop turns to FB seeking action against senior: Just the tip of the iceberg?

A policewoman in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, faced with sexual harassment from a senior officer in the force, had to take to social media to get her grievances heard.

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