No country for women: Bag snatcher abuses, assaults Delhi woman in broad daylight; bystanders watch tamasha
Radhika Menon, a Delhi University professor, jotted down the entire ordeal of getting beaten up in broad daylight by a bag snatcher on Facebook, expressing grave concern about women's safety in our country.
In Short
- DU professor was abused, assaulted in broad daylight by a bag snatcher in Delhi.
- Bystanders did not intervene or help the woman.
- CCTV cameras were not working, the footage recovered didn't have the man's face.
The horrific incident of mass molestation that occurred on December 31 in Bengaluru sparked outrage among people and started a conversation about a topic that is often ignored - molestation. Just a couple of days after the Bengaluru incident came to light, another CCTV footage from Bengaluru showed a woman being groped and robbed by two men in a residential area, proving to women that this country is not safe for women.
But since we believe only what we see, only these two incidents made headlines. There might have been hundreds of other cases of women being molested, raped and abused, but would be conveniently ignored, because no proof.
As many people on social media triggered conversations where they drew parallels between the sad state of women's safety in Delhi and Bengaluru, and men trending #NotAllMen to distract people from discussing this serious issue of molestation and abuse women face in their daily lives, another harrowing incident was shared by a Delhi University professor -- Radhika Menon -- on her Facebook profile. Narrating the bitter experience of being beaten up by a bag snatcher in broad daylight at a petrol pump in Delhi's Mayur Vihar area, she expressed her concern about women who do not have enough resources to reach out to news organisations or enough knowledge about social media.
Also read: Bengaluru mass molestation survivors: First time ever we felt unsafe
Radhika was at the Vij Auto Centre (BP) petrol pump near Mayur Vihar phase-III yesterday morning. As she was entering her car, a man, wearing a hoodie, came from the wrong side on a bike, and pulled her bag and her along. She managed to not leave her bag and the man fell from the bike.
The man got up, abusing and threatening Menon. He then punched, slapped and broke her spectacles while continuing to abuse and threatening her with death. Bystanders did not intervene, just saw the tamasha. Not a single person noted the man's vehicle number down and turned their faces away from a woman being brutally assaulted.
The bag snatcher had the audacity to punch her again before fleeing the scene. Bystanders still did not act.
Read her entire letter in her own words:
"No safe space for women. All spaces are open for her assault, as thugs roam our streets.
Friends, thank you for the concern. Your show of solidarity is much needed. I am bruised, scratched and carrying the pain of blunt injury. But more than the physical pain I am shocked and stunned at the ease with which a woman can be threatened with death, slapped about, abused and assaulted at a public place, while people watch around a spectacle of a woman being attacked and humiliated.
I was going to college in the morning to take my classes, when I stopped at Vij Auto Centre (Bharat Petroleum), opposite SFS flats in Mayur Vihar Phase-III Delhi, for refuelling my car.
As I was boarding the car a young man in an orange hoodie came from the wrong side towards the petrol bay, and dragged my bag and me along. As I pulled him and my bag back, he also fell and began abusing and threatening me.
After that it was a blur of slapping, punches, wherein my spectacles were broken and flung away. I turned to the petrol agents and by standers to note his vehicle number. They simply looked away, even as the emboldened man came closer, punched me again and sped away.
A few bystanders came to enquire and scolded the petrol pump agents and guards for not reacting. They claimed the CCTV would capture the footage.
The police arrived after my call, and then it was informed by them that not all cameras worked, that there was no hard disk. A footage finally was taken down from a camera that conveniently did not capture the face of the man who attacked me. But which displayed how I was beaten up.
I spent the whole morning, afternoon and early evening trying to get the footage, medical done and applying for an FIR to be filed. From whatever they saw of the footage the police think it was not bag snatching incident, but a deliberate act of rash driving towards me.
So to cut a long story short, it appears,
1. Women are not safe in a public place even in the morning.
2. You don't really have to be a very young woman wearing fashionable clothes. You just have to be a woman for you to be abused and attacked. Boring teachers are not safe either.
3. It's not only the public transport systems that are unsafe, even a private vehicle cannot assure safety.
4. A closed public space such as a petrol bay can become a punching ground against a woman.
5. People working at public places still think it is okay for a woman to be beaten up and leave it for CCTVs to do the job.
6 Well, CCTVs just don't do enough and all this business of digital and technology shows only what has to be shown and doesn't intimidate goons and thugs.
7. If someone like me who has so many friends, and who can articulate fearlessly, can be beaten up in broad daylight with such ease, without much hope of getting my assaulter booked, imagine the plight of women who are less well connected and less resourced.
Take a look at her original post here: