Stalking menace

THE heightening incidence of pestering girls leading to tragic consequences for the victims and their families, has brought to the fore a dimension of social criminality that has hitherto been low-down on the pecking order of crimes. But this trivialisation shouldn't have occurred to begin with given that the aberration, keeping pace with other forms of social degeneracy and lack of governance, has been growing all the time without our realising it.
A number of girls have taken their lives to save them from the ignominy of constant intimidation and humiliation, even though some form of timely counselling and intervention should have enabled them to pull back from the brink. But the lexicon on women's repression sounds so fulsome: suicide added to dowry related torture, burning, acid throwing, rape and murder.
It must also be noted that the reported incidence of such offences is but a tip of the iceberg. The scale on which different forms of harassment of women is taking place -- unrecognised -- be it in schools, colleges, universities, public places and work places must be appalling if fully exposed.
So, our social conscience should be nudged into action of which there are growing signs, with the government leading the way. It is good to see that the PM has called for stern action while different organisations including NGOs, civil rights bodies, educational institutions recently organised human chains to express their indignation over the malady. However, that by itself is not enough nor are the hot pursuit or arrest of the accused. It is essential to see to it that they are convicted and punished. The community should not rest content with demanding justice but also making sure the stalkers are exposed, resisted and neutralised. They must make the police take up the cases without fear and favour and be prepared to provide evidence and witness support to the prosecution whenever necessary. We know there are women's rights bodies ready to provide legal aid to victims. They must come forward in a bigger way. In the end, there should be a coalition of social forces to resist all forms of threats to life and security of every individual, particularly girls and women who remain vulnerable despite empowerment of women in some vital sectors of national life.