Keep watchmen, suspicious characters off footpaths
By Gajanan Khergamker
Very often, it may be seen that shopkeepers do their activities on footpaths, encroaching upon the public’s right to passage. Sometimes the very residents of a society indulge in drying their clothes, littering and sitting on the pavement with utter disregard to social decorum even the law.
When the perpetrators involve elderly women, more often than not, the wrong isn’t taken too seriously. After all, what’s wrong with a few Aunties occupying the pavement in the evening, it’s commonly felt. But then, how much of a wrong is okay to suffer till things go out of hand?
So then, after a while, you’ve got boys from a nearby lane dropping by for a chat and a smoke while sitting in a huddle below a society building. A few days later, someone gets a bottle of beer and consumes it, first, in hiding from public preview. A week or so later, they’re all at it without any regard to the local population or the presence of women in the vicinity. In no time, one of the boys gets bold enough to pass a comment at a resident girl walking by and that’s when a few members get up, nab the boy and thrash him.
Now, the boy who has been slighted and shamed in public, slinks away nursing his wounds and bruised ego only to retaliate to the girl sometime in the near future. If he does so at a time when the girl’s alone and vulnerable, things could go out of hand. I personally feel that to a huge extent, we’re at fault as much as the local police for letting situations like these assume such grotesque proportions.
For one, any suspicious element must be questioned and whisked away from residential zones. Information in this regard must be offered to the local police whose job is to ensure public safety. But for suspicious elements to be nabbed, we must create a situation where we can pinpoint who is ‘suspicious’ as opposed to a ‘regular’.
That happens when we’re on guard and prevent residents and watchmen from sitting on the public road or pavement as a rule. It’s not just an offence but a huge risk factor with suspect characters hanging around near your home, keeping a watch on your whereabouts only to strike at some point of time.
Queries may be mailed to gajanan@draftcraft.in
