Hyderabad: Two Telangana ministers on Tuesday said there was nothing new in “anti-romeo squads” of Uttar Pradesh, set up to curb eve-teasing there, as such teams have been working as ‘SHE Teams’ here since October 2014.
Home Minister Nayini Narasimha Reddy said the police from several states have visited Telangana to study the functioning of ‘SHE Teams,’ set up by the Hyderabad police to crack down on eve-teasers and stalkers, and are forming similar squads back home.
“After seeing ‘SHE Teams’ here, they (Uttar Pradesh) got the idea of setting up anti-Romeo squads. It is ok… whatever the names be, the ‘SHE Teams’ are functioning for the safety of women and the college and school-going girls,” Reddy told reporters on the sidelines of an event here.
The roving ‘SHE Teams,’ which were launched on October 24, 2014, in Hyderabad with the sole aim of curbing eve-teasing and making the city safer for women, was subsequently set up across Telangana.
The SHE Team officials, wearing plain clothes, are deployed near colleges and other public places. A single SHE Team comprises a male or female sub-inspector, a woman, and three male constables, who carry hidden cameras for video recording.
“The incidents of eve-teasing have now stopped. Youngsters, indulging in eve-teasing are caught by ‘SHE Teams’ and counselled before their parents,” the minister said adding that such offenders are also arrested.
Telangana IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao, son of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, added that the ‘SHE Teams’ have got amazing success in curbing eve-teasing.
“The anti-Romeo squads of the UP police was formed after the new state government assumed power. But these squads are nothing else except the SHE Teams of Telangana,” said Rao.
Anti-Romeo squads comprising police personnel, both in plain clothes and uniform, from local police stations were formed on directives of new Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to keep a vigil at markets, shopping malls, schools, colleges, coaching centres, parks and other crowded places to check incidents of eve-teasing and harassment.
–PTI