Subways in city suburbs are unsafe for women, men alike

CHENNAI: The incident of an RPF Sub Inspector misbehaving with a woman who was walking alone in the Tambaram subway in the first week of the month went viral. The woman’s husband who was an advocate was not ready to leave the RPF and he filed a complaint. The Sub Inspector was suspended and arrested.

The people who walk through the subways in the southern Suburbs like Tirusulam, Tambaram, and Perungalathur say that this is not the only incident and often the women are being harassed in the subways.

The public say that the RPF or the police are not protecting them, the local vendors in the subway are the ones protecting them and raise their voices when something wrong happens.

A woman from Perungalathur seeking anonymity said, a few years ago when I was returning from my college through the subway, a young man followed and approached me in the dark area. I was helpless and called my friends for help and later came to know that he was a police constable.

Another resident from Perungalathur said, one evening when my sister was returning from her college at the same subway, a drunk man who was sitting on the floor pulled her clothes and tried to misbehave with her. That incident disturbed my sister a lot and from then she stopped using the subway.

Similarly, in Tambaram and Tirusulam people have undergone many such incidents. A young man from Tambaram said one day when he was walking alone through the subway in the night, a man aged around 40 years hugged him from behind and touched him inappropriately. I was shocked at what was happening and just pushed him down and went away. People feel that most of the subways in the southern suburbs are not safe for both men and women. The subways, with poor lighting and no security cameras, have become a den for the antisocial elements.

Subways are being constructed by the government by spending crores of money for the welfare of the people but the people cannot use them out of fear.

Most of the illegal activities happen here. The commuters seek bright lights at all times and it should also have CCTV cameras installed without a blindspot. The sources from the Railway Protection Force said that there is a shortage of police personnel and so they couldn’t cover the subways at times. If the vacant posts are filled it would be very helpful for them.