Mumbai: The 7/11 blasts may have tightened security in and around railway stations in Mumbai. But, due to this pressure, the security situation in the ladies' compartments in local trains has been compromised.
"As a journalist if this could happen to me and this is the way the police reacts, then what about the scores of girls who have to travel daily?" a journalist with ZEE, Mamta Khippal asks.
There are no security guards around and the women travel at their own risk in the ladies compartments in Mumbai's local trains. And thieves and pranksters seem to be having a field day.
"I was traveling to Churchgate and talking on the phone when I felt some one hitting my head hard and then a hand from behind my seat, trying to grab the cell phone in my hand. I turned around and hearing my screams, other lady passengers came running and seeing them the man jumped out of the slow moving train," Mamta recalls.
Posting escort constables in ladies coaches started after a commuter, Jayabala Ashar, was robbed and thrown out of a running train in 1998. But, the recent security pressure and acute shortage of manpower have ensured that these lady commuters are left to fend for themselves.
"Now the priority is to check the bags of commuters and checking suspicious objects in the train. So there are no police escorts in the ladies' compartment any more," Sub-Inspector, Churchgate station, J P Ladke says.
The Railway Protection Force used to register an average of 175 cases of crime annually. After the deployment of guards in 1998 the numbers went down by a drastic 50 per cent.
However, with the guards withdrawn again, the ladies coaches are no longer going to be safe places.
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