Age No Bar; Grandpas Caught Eve-Teasing on City Streets

A 64-year-old man held for eve-teasing a woman constable.

By Revalli Sushma Reddy

Hyderabad: In the broad day light, as a woman draped in a saree walks on a busy street, men often call her names, whistle at her, show her perverted gestures, ask her embarrassing questions and even stalk her. This isn't a scene from any movie but the plight of every girl in any city or town in India.

These scenes are very common and entertaining in movies, but the experience is a nightmare for women in real life. Dialogues like 'What a bomb!', 'Will you do friendship with me?' are nothing new for women as they get stalked and eve-teased by men on daily basis.

It is a general assumption that men who eve-tease are usually teenagers or people in their 20s or 30s. But, shockingly, a lot of men above the age of 60 are being caught eve-teasing nowaday in city.

From January 2015, of the 1000 people arrested by She Teams in Secunderabad and Cyberabad, 20 people were 60 plus. Also, of the 40 people arrested in Cyberabad for eve-teasing in the last week, 3 men were aged above 60 years.

A similar case was reported on Thursday around 1.30pm at Kukatpally bus stop. A 34-year-old woman was waiting in the bus stop where an old man aged 64 was standing beside her. As she was alone, the man started showing her discreet gestures and later moved closed to her and said, “Shall we go for a movie? My wife is not at home. So, we can go for a movie and then.....”

Filming this incident from a distance was a group of women. Few minutes later, a police van reached the spot and took the old man into custody. It turned out the woman who was being eve-teased was a constable of the 'She Team' which was formed exclusively for the safety of women in Hyderabad.

To understand the problems faced by women in the city, She teams headed by Malkajgiri DSP Rama Rajeshwari are going undercover in the city. As a part of this, they are filming the eve-teasers and are eventually arresting them.

Later, the arrested eve-teasers who are aged 60 years and above are being counselled by the police. It is said that in most of the cases, few are guilty of what they do but the rest don't accept that they have committed a mistake. Also, when the police call up their families for counselling, usually the wives say they wouldn't come as it is a shameful act on the part of the men. However, the children come to the police station and take them home.

The main reason for this kind of behavior in old men is usually due to 'benign prostatic hypertrophy' which means more production of testosterone thereby making them want to involve in sexual activities. As they don't find a mate at that age at home, they go around the streets trying their luck.

However, psychologists say that filming and counselling old men at police stations is not the right thing. They suggest that when men at this age have any behavioral change, it can first be observed by their spouse or family members. It is required that the family discusses about this and then consult a family counseller.