DMRC: Over 5K challans for entering women's coach since 2018, 7 molestation cases in 6 mths
New Delhi: More than 5,000 challans have been issued by the Delhi Metro since 2018 to male passengers who unlawfully enter the women's compartment across various corridors, with more than 500 fines issued only in the year 2020 when metro services were shut down for close to seven months in view of the Covid-induced lockdown, data provided by DMRC showed.
Meanwhile, in six months of functioning, seven cases of molestation were reported inside the Delhi metro premises last year while six cases have been reported till July this year, the data from Delhi Police's Metro department showed. Significantly, in 2019, Delhi Metro had witnessed at least 32 cases of molestation inside compartments/premises.
As per the yearly figures, as many as 2,983 fines were issued by the metro authorities to male passengers for trespassing inside the women's compartment in 2018, around 1,730 challans were issued for the year 2019, while 506 fines were issued in 2020 when train operations closed down in March and reopened in September with 50 percent passenger capacity due to Covid-19.
Fines are generally issued under Section 64(1) of the Delhi Metro Railway (Operation & Maintenance) Act, 2002, for an amount of Rs. 200.
DCP(Metro) Jitendra Mani said that incidents of eve-teasing and molestation inside the metro have decreased drastically. "Most cases of them trespassing in the women's compartment might be because of the passenger rush…," he said.
A senior DMRC official, on the condition of anonymity, said the issue has been a persistent problem inside metro compartments for years now and that DMRC has been accordingly deploying flying squads — consisting of both metro and CISF officials — across various corridors to check unlawful entry or trespassing inside metro. "After receiving a complaint, we issue them a challan and counsel them and in serious cases hand them over to the police," the official added.
A woman commuter told Millennium Post: "Once I was travelling in the women's coach when a bunch of men entered our compartment...I told them to leave but only some of them left. Later some metro representatives told them to deboard...they weren't fined," she said. She added, "At stations like Kashmere Gate and Rajiv Chowk, there are personnel to ensure that men don't enter women's compartments, there are constant announcements too but they just feign ignorance and don't listen…"
As per norms, the first car of a train in moving direction is reserved for women across all corridors of metro while adequate signages have been provided to clearly indicate the area of platform where the reserved car normally stops.
