Two schoolgirls stalked and attacked by four men while on their way to tuition in Salt Lake hit back, one slamming her bag on a tormentor’s face and her friend spraying deodorant into another’s eyes.

The teenaged duo’s fightback carries a message that could strike a chord with women in Calcutta who are increasingly feeling unsafe on roads populated by biker gangs and molesters looking for easy prey.

The incident had occurred around 7.45pm on July 15 in front of a school campus in Salt Lake’s EB Block, barely 150 metres from a police kiosk. The two Class XII girls had noticed the young men following them minutes after they crossed the road in front of City Centre to head for their tuition centre in the same block, a 15-minute walk from there.

One of the girls wrote to Metro about the incident a week later, saying she was sharing their ordeal to make all women in Calcutta more vigilant about the possibility of being hounded anywhere, anytime.

“It scares me that this happens with girls in Calcutta, which is a metropolitan city.… Through this, I want to alert all the teenage girls as well as women,” she said.

The two friends revisited the spot with Metro on Wednesday afternoon, recounting how their tormentors had first waved at them and then started walking faster to close the distance.

The duo at first ignored the unwanted attention but decided to run on realising that the stalkers wouldn’t give up.

When one of them tripped and fell, the men caught up with them. “I was suddenly surrounded by two men, one of whom held my right wrist and said: ‘Why don’t you come along with us? You will enjoy.’ I was sweating but also thinking hard how to escape,” the student of humanities said.

“I then remembered that I was carrying a steel tiffin box in my bag. So, with my left hand I raised the bag and slammed it on the man’s face. He let go of my hand and I fled.”

Her friend, who was on the other side of the road, was also being harassed by two men. Her response was to spray deodorant into the eyes of one of the harassers. Taken aback, he retreated.

“One of them had asked me: ‘How much for one night?’ I had the deodorant in my hand by then and I targeted his eyes,” recalled the 16-year-old student of commerce.

The two teenagers ran back in the direction of City Centre, boarded a rickshaw and headed for their tuition centre through another road, lest they encounter their tormentors again.

A senior officer of the Bidhannagar police commissionerate said that cops manning the kiosk in front of City Centre were not supposed to keep vigil on the adjoining areas, so they couldn’t be blamed for not rushing to the girls’ rescue.

“If someone needs to, he or she can surely lodge a complaint at the kiosk and necessary action will be taken. We did not receive any complaint (regarding two girls being stalked) on July 15. If we see anything wrong is happening, we do take action,” the officer claimed.

An assistant sub-inspector, a constable and three to four green police volunteers usually man the kiosk. It was set up more than a year ago mainly to enforce parking rules and ensure that taxis do not refuse or harass passengers.

Last month, Metro had highlighted how a 24-year-old woman living in Salt Lake’s CA Block, not far from City Centre, had been stalked by two men on a motorbike near the locality’s crowded market around 7pm.

The stalkers had passed the woman and waited for her in a corner of the lane.

“I walked into the market, roamed aimlessly for 30 minutes before stepping out to check if the motorbike-borne men were still there. On being sure they weren’t around, I rushed home,” the woman narrated.

In the July 15 incident, the two Class XII girls had no reason to think that the young men coming from the opposite direction would suddenly turn and follow them.

“They looked like regular college boys and there were people around, so we didn’t think much of their presence,” said the girl who had used her bag to hit one of them.

The first alarm was one of the tormentors holding up his mobile phone “as if to click a picture”. “I immediately became alert and when we crossed the road, I noticed them following us and told my friend so,” the other girl said.

The boys waved at the duo to stop. When the girls ignored them, they became more aggressive.

“They started chasing us and I took out the deodorant can from my bag knowing that I might have to use it. I generally keep it in my bag because I take part in sports. A deo can is also a weapon on Calcutta roads now,” the girl said.

She and her friend are shocked that something like this could happen in an area that doesn’t go to sleep at 7.30pm. “It was not as if we were walking through a desolate lane. Cars sped past us. Nobody cared to stop. There are a few shops nearby but nobody stepped out to help us,” the deo girl said. “If this could happen in a place so close to City Centre with a police kiosk right there, what would you do in the deserted lanes and bylanes?”

The general impression is that lack of police action against offenders has made them bolder. “They would earlier stop at making lewd remarks as you passed by. Now they have the audacity to stalk and go to the extent of holding you by the hand,” the teenager rued.

What’s your message for the schoolgirls who fought back? Tell ttmetro@abpmail.com

UNSAFE CITY

‘The city is taking away freedom from its women’

After reading about the biker gangs in The Telegraph on Wednesday, a 28-year-old dental surgeon called up the newspaper office and narrated her brush with a biker gang last month.

On June 17, I was driving to a coffee shop near CC&FC at 11.30pm to meet up with some friends when suddenly around seven rowdy bikes appeared out of nowhere at the Ballygunge tram depot crossing.

They tried overtaking every car in the lane, zipping past them, going zigzag as if about to crash into them and then screeching to a halt, waiting for the cars to come forward and then repeating their action.

They came speeding towards me. I slowed down and switched off my headlights. Luckily, they went past me. I don’t know what would have happened if they had spotted a lone woman behind the wheel.

There were around 17 or 18 boys on bikes, all without helmets. When they arrived at the Modern High School crossing, they spotted two middle-aged men standing there and started throwing eggs at them!

They then sped away and came to a halt in front of a line of tyre repair and paan-cigarette shops where some more bikers were standing.

I was extremely scared and tried calling ‘100’ many times but each time I dialled it said ‘call failed’. This was the first time in my eight years of driving in the city that I had seen such hooliganism and also the first time that I felt the need to dial 100.

And I was most surprised that this was happening at the city’s main crossings and there were no cops around to check what was happening.

A Calcuttan, who has been was away from the city for a year, writes to Metro about feeling the fear on her return this time.

I was born and brought up in Calcutta and did my schooling here before going to Mumbai for college. During my college years, and even after that, whenever I came back to the city on holiday, late-night dinners on Park Street and stopping by at Someplace Else were a common affair. On many of these outings, it would be me and my three girlfriends. We would stay out late and take a cab back to a friend’s place at Bhowanipore. We were always alert while we were out but never scared.

I left the city last year to study in the US. Back on holiday just after 10 months, things seem to have changed in Calcutta. It’s not just the cases of violence I read about in the newspapers every morning, I hear my friends constantly complaining of the verbal abuse they have to face on the roads all the time. It seems no time is safe for women to step out. The fear with which most girls leave the house is sad.

Earlier, I would travel by public transport quite comfortably, now my parents insist that I take the car wherever I go and if I happen to take a cab they insist that I call and give them the cab number. I went to Park Street this time too, but with the car waiting to take me home. For once, I don’t even want to argue with my parents. Somehow, the city really doesn’t feel safe anymore.

I remember taking a cab home to Salt Lake from south Calcutta around 11pm countless times but just a few days back I was in my own car with my brother and panicked when I spotted a Tata Sumo full of drunk men ahead. The men kept stopping the Sumo and shouting abuses at anyone and everyone on the road. This was on Rifle Range Road around 10.30pm. The road was by no means deserted but that didn’t stop these men. I realised there would be very little to do if they actually decided to block my way.

A week ago, I had gone to Mumbai to attend a wedding and took a local train around 11.30pm from south Mumbai to Navi Mumbai to meet a friend. It was 11.30 in the night, the ladies’ compartment was near-empty, but not for once during the one-hour journey did I feel scared or unsafe. But I wouldn’t dream of doing that in Calcutta anymore.
It’s sad that the city has taken away freedom from its women. It’s forcing us to depend on someone else — father, brother, husband, friend — which is against everything that most women are working for now.

What needs to be done to make women feel safer in Calcutta? Tell ttmetro@abpmail.com