Need Stringent Punishment for Eve Teasing

By Harpreet Sandhu, Advocate, Punjab & Haryana High Court
Witnessing the recent stalking incident wherein a kin of political big wing has been involved in Chandigarh, it seems eve teasing has transformed into a major social evil within the society, thus creating major hindrance for girls and women. A permissive attitude of administration towards “eve-teasing” has rather made it difficult as the offenders are frequently dismissed as harmless having no fear of punishment hence making several public places unsafe for women. Stringent laws under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code should be formed on a dire basis, the only route to effective ways of curbing the menace, as most eve-teasing cases go unreported and even if women take courage to report the matter to the police, they are at times asked uncomfortable questions and as witnessed in eve-teasing cases the police are seldom serious in putting the perpetrators of the crime behind bars, as also witnessed in the present case. Rather the law should be amended, the provision of the bail should be scrapped, with a time bound trial in the court, convicting the accused. As presently the maximum punishment in cases of molestation or outraging the modesty of women is five years, and offence being bailable. In the present case of stalking the culprit must face the heat of his misdeed irrespective of his position or family status. Rather there should be no political interference The administration should rather constitute a separate task force in the capital to check the increasing cases of molestation and eve-teasing specifically adjoining educational institutions, girls hostels, malls. Even our society needs to boycott such unscrupulous elements who indulge in cases related to eve teasing. Today it’s the need of hour for the relevant authorities to punish such culprits involved in eve teasing, creating fear in the minds of such unscrupulous elements indulging in eve-teasing and need to set an example for women safety.