Ahmedabad traffic police's bizarre poster on women safety sparks row: 'Stay home to avoid rape'
Responding to the row, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic West), Neeta Desai said the campaign was about road safety and not women's safety. She claimed that NGO Satarkta Group created the poster without the consent of the traffic police.
Ahmedabad Police is facing backlash over safety campaign posters that appear to advise women to stay indoors to avoid rape. Allegedly sponsored by the police, these posters have been spotted in several parts of the city, drawing criticism for different sections of society.
Posters with statements, "do not attend late night parties, you could be raped or gangraped," and "do not go with your friend to dark, isolated areas, what if she is raped or gangraped?" were pasted on road dividers in Sola and Chandlodia areas and have since been removed, as per PTI.
Police issue clarification
Responding to the row, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic West), Neeta Desai said the campaign was about road safety and not women's safety. She claimed that NGO Satarkta Group created the poster without the consent of the traffic police.
"The NGO had approached us and said they wanted to organise traffic awareness programmes in schools and colleges and wanted our staff to accompany them. We were shown posters related to traffic awareness. But such controversial posters were not shown to us and were plastered without our consent," the news agency quoted Desai as saying. She said the posters were immediately removed soon after the issue was brought to the notice of the police.
AAP slams BJP
The opposition has lapped up the issue to criticise the state government over women safety. The Gujarat unit of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) took a swipe at the BJP over the viral poster.
"The BJP government in Gujarat talks about women's empowerment, but the ground reality is completely different. In the last three years, more than 6,500 incidents of rape and more than 36 gang rapes have occurred in Gujarat, with more than five rapes per day,” the AAP said in a statement, as per PTI.
"The chief minister and BJP leaders talk about women's safety, but today in a big city like Ahmedabad, these posters express the reality of Gujarat. Our question to the CM is whether the women of Gujarat should go out of the house at night or not?" it added.