Giving missed calls to women could land you in jail in Bihar. CID Inspector General, Arvind Pandey has issued a circular to all Superintendents of Police and Government Rail Police to ensure that police investigates these cases with seriousness.
As silly as it sounds, but these steps are taken to prevent harassment of women as repeated miss calls might make them insecure and rob them of peace. The police has decided to count the act as a crime of stalking under Section 354D (i) and (ii) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The moves comes out as large number of college going girls complained about receiving unsolicited calls on their mobile phone.
Harassment is no less than bullying and it's quite commendable that police authorities are actually working to break it down. However, what kind of missed calls will be considered as harassment? Pandey has asked police officers to ignore the matter if the missed calls are once or twice but take up the matter if the missed calls are repeated and with an intention to harass the women.
In a country where an entire business runs on the concept of missed calls, someone was bound to make misuse of it. Many a times these harassment issues go unnoticed as people are unaware of their rights. Apparently, in Bihar, the women's police have also organised about 65 workshops in the girls' schools and colleges to apprise them about the necessary steps they should take while travelling, using mobile phones or social networking sites.
