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Mumbai: The irksome process of registering a police complaint often deters women from approaching cops about street harassment, molestation or stalking. An initiative by the alumni of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, along with Mumbai police, seeks to plug this disconnect.

The India OYE (Open Your Eyes) initiative encourages Mumbaikars to report sexual harassment they suffer or witness with a few clicks. They can punch in an SMS, tweet, post on Facebook or log on to www.indiaoye.org to report crimes against women. Those with smartphones can download the campaign’s mobile app that facilitates lodging a complaint.

ACTION STATION
 
• Complain about sexual harassment through SMS, tweet, FB post, mobile app
 or on a portal
 
•The crime spot will show up as a red dot on an online map. Too many red dots in one area will mean trouble and cops can, accordingly, increase patrolling
 
• The complaints will go at the same time to the police control room for action
 
•Project, helmed by TISS alumni, to start soon in Chembur-Deonar, covering 18 police stations Senior cop to keep an eye on action taken

Mumbai: The initiative that allows women to complain about harassment on streets through SMS, tweet, FB post or mobile app and then maps it and forwards the complaint to the police will be piloted in Chembur-Deonar, covering 18 police stations within a fortnight. If it succeeds, it will be upscaled to cover more crimes and map more areas. 

“We realized women were scared to report everyday violence at police stations. Even those willing to do so said they would spend half their lives in police stations given how slow procedures work,” said Manwinder Singh (29), founder of IndiaOYE (Open Your Eye), pointing out that police often reflect patriarchal reactions of society. 

The IndiaOYE platform seeks to abolish such perceptions by creating a more transparent citizen-police interface. On receiving a complaint, it will in real-time map the location of the incident and display it as a red spot on an online map. The complaint is simultaneously activated at the regional police control room, where officials will verify it via the caller’s mobile number or email id. The persons calling or emailing can keep their identity confidential. “The idea is to create a safety map. A concentration of red spots will indicate the presence of unsafe areas,” explains Singh, adding that police statistics on crimes against women are highly under-reported and their effort is towards reflecting a truer picture of the city’s crime-scape. 

Its benefits could go beyond mapping. Additional commissioner of police (East) Qaiser Khalid believes the initiative has great potential. He explains a scenario in which a school junction routinely shows up in the realtime map for harassment. “Technology will help us better deploy personnel at such junctions,” he says. The control room, under his surveillance, will monitor if the complainant is satisfied with the police action. 

Experts say the platform could help fight burking and crime more effectively, if there is political will.

Former police commissioner A N Roy says the initiative will work as the most common refrain among people regarding sexual harassment is that the police don’t record complaints.