Hyderabad's Numaish exhibition unsafe for women

Hyderabad: The city’s biggest annual fair, ‘Numaish’, draws to a close on the the occasion of ‘National Women’s Day’ with more than 40 cases of womens’ harassment being filed by women who came to visit the fair. Some of them were even minor girls who were groped incessantly by men who thought that they could get away with it in the crowd.

Sreenivas Rao, inspector of Begum Bazaar says, “Last year, there were more than 45 complaints during  the annual fest and we tried to decrease this number by introducing security cameras and policemen in civilian clothes and other security measures. “It helped in nabbing more offenders. There were many women who didn't know that they were being videotaped while being molested by men who our police nabbed.” Most of the harassers were caught for groping and pinching women. A number of minor girls also came foward and complained. Shradha Nair, a resident of Begumpet says, “My fifteen-year-old daughter told me that she felt someone was brushing his hand against her and tried to see who he was, but it was too crowded.

“We went to the police outpost soon after she told me about it and they were very helpful, but I felt bad for girls younger than her, who may not even tell their parents what happened.” She added that many parents just brush aside the topic and leave the fair in a rush, but complaining about misbehaviour was more important. K. Sudhakar, SI of Begum Bazaar says, “I have been on duty at ‘Numaish’ since day one and have encouraged people to complain about any kind of harassment. We  took strong action against many. Nearly five men were taken into custody and sent to court while another 15 were charged with petty nuisance cases.”