3 women check safety measures past midnight in Kerala
Bike rider, social activist, & artiste take solo walk on deserted streets of Thiruvananthapuram
Three women took solo walk past midnight on deserted streets of Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday night for a reality check on women safety in Kerala’s capital city.
Bike rider Shyni Rajkumar, social activist Liji Sreedhar and cine artiste Vineetha Deepak completed the walk but not without experiencing issues that often haunt women on deserted roads.
All three are members of Trivandrum Chamber of Junior Chamber international. They had participated in the night walk organised by social welfare department on December 29 in which 10,000 women took part across 200 centres. But this time they were keen to do the walk all alone.
“Barring a few places, most areas are under pitch darkness. A middle aged on scooter offered to drop me home. At the bus stand a youth called on me. Another youth took three rounds and made some gestures. But he fled the place when I started recording the events live on social media,” said Shyni.
She said women need to be more vigilant when confronted by men who are drunk or under influence of drugs. They can turn violent and pose serious threat. In such situation being mentally tough is not enough, one needs to acquire self defence techniques like martial arts.
Shiny took the stretch from Thampanoor, Mettukada, Thycaud and Vazhuthacaud which even men hesitate to take during midnight. “Men are hesitant to approach us in areas which are properly lit and when we go live,” she said.
The Pattom — PMG route taken by actor Vineetha Deepak was better in terms of lighting. However, she too had her share of problems. “Many on two wheelers slowed down to say hi, hello. Two youths came on a bike and whistled at me. When I looked at them they showed some obscene gesture. But during the walk no one chased me or tried to attack,” she recollected.
According to her one the major threats during night is from strays. “A pack of strays came after me near Museum police station. But fortunately they returned after following me for a short distance,” she said.
Liji Sreedhar was lucky to walk on Peroork ad aK aw di ar—Vella yam ba lam stretch which has maximum concentration of CCTV cameras along the route.