‘There is lack of awareness about women’s helpline in Bangalore’

Bangalore: It has been a year since the city got its 24-hour toll free helpline for women under duress (number 1091), but coordinator Rani Shetty laments that there is lack of awareness about its presence and functioning.

“We conduct awareness camp­­aigns at schools, colleges, BPOs, government instit­utions and hospitals. Last year, we conducted more than 200 such programmes, but I have found that knowledge about the helpline is very low among city residents,” Rani said.

The 24-hour helpline receives phone calls pertaining to eve-teasing, har­a­s­sment through, SMS and complaints via Facebook. “We receive a lot of complaints pertaining to eve-teasing. We had rescued 41 victims of eve-teasing. The­­­se are just the reported ones; there are so many cases that go unreported. Many people fear the pro­cess involved or the length of time or trouble involved after lodging a complaint,” she said.

The problem cuts across all areas in the city and even posh localities such as Koramangala and M.G. Road are not free from it. Rani said, “In one such case, a school girl was hara­ssed by three boys near Forum Mall in Kora­mangala. One of the onloo­kers saw that and informed us. Subs­equently, we called the Koramangala police station and caught one boy.

She said proportion of genu­ine calls have incre­ased considerably. On an aver­age the helpline rece­ives about 400 calls, and of these about 150 turn out to be genuine. Earlier it used to be around 50, she added.

In the year 2013, the wom­en’s helpline made 148 rescues altogether. “People sho­­­uld make use of this facility whenever they are in need. There is nothing to be afraid about,” she said.