How To Control Hooligans

Alka was narrating a sad incident from our Hindi newspaper (therefore I don’t have a link to the actual news). In a train a few boys were harassing a half a dozen school or college girls. When the co-travelers protested, the boys — they were local I guess and were traveling just for fun — called their friends on cell phones and the ensuing mob not only thrashed the passengers but also tore the girls’ clothes. No wonder people think twice before speaking against bullies and eve teasers in buses, trains, on the roads and in the market. But isn’t it so humiliating to keep mum? Doesn’t something die inside you when you mutely observe someone’s modesty being publicly outraged while you seethe inside? What can you do?

A good lesson from this incident is never protest half-heartedly. An unfortunate thing is in India people never unite against evil but always do so when they themselves are being evil, as it happened in this case. Initially, how many boys could there have been? 6, 7, even 10? A rail bogey on an average has 50-60 passengers. These boys should have been thrashed badly and their cell phones should have been thrown out collectively by all the passengers. I know this is wishful thinking.

I wonder what you can do as a single person. There is no use depending on police, and there is no use depending on people around you? Got any ideas? Can something be done that helps the distressed person and doesn’t cause you harm?

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