In a shocking case reported from Waghwade, a village about 12 km from Belagavi city, school girls are forced to carry sticks to protect themselves from molesters suspected to be from the neighboring Markhandey village.

Speaking to Bangalore Mirror, Kiran Nippanikar, director of Pyaas Foundation that works on water management, said, “Four to five cases of molestation are reported from the area every week. For these molesters, the age of the girl is not of any concern. They target anyone from a child to an old woman.

“When these women take up the issue with their family, they get confined to their home, not something they bargained for. Afraid of this, most of them put up with these men.”

“But as the harassment only increases, the only way out seemed to go out but put up a fight against these perverts. So we advise schoolchildren to carry sticks with them. To further embolden them, we share with them phone numbers of cops and our teammates who are ever ready to help,” he said.

Instances of molestation are not a recent occurrence here. In fact, the two villages have been at loggerheads over the matter, but without a firm political will, the issue remains unsolved. The men allegedly come on motorcycles and fled the spot after the dirty acts. Women travelling by buses are also targeted, according to the locals.

“We suspect that there has been an increase in the number of such cases in the past 4-5 months,” he said, going on to add that their organisation got to know about these abhorrent goings-on after the wife of one of their employees was targeted.

“It was after she revolted that women started talking about it. We took up the issue with the police, but have not seen any results yet,” he said.

During one of their interactions with students in a local school, members of the organisation were shocked when a girl revealed that what was happening to their aunties was also happening to them. There is a primary and high school in the village.

“We were shocked. We then took a lady teacher and asked her to speak to the children. There are 40-45 school-going children in the village. The children said that in case they raise the issue with their parents, they would not be allowed to go to schools. Cops in mufti were expected to be active in the area but attacks on girls continued. Their school is about a kilometre from the village and the only option before them is to walk,” said Nippanikar.

The village has a population of about 5,000. The villagers rue that they are only treated as vote banks. The area lacks street lights due to which women refuse to come out after it gets dark.

When it was brought to his notice, Belagavi police commissioner TG Krishna Bhatt assured to look into the matter. “I am not aware about it but will look into it,” he said.

(Source: indiatimes)