Posters advising women to stay home to avoid rape spark row in Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad: Posters allegedly linked to an Ahmedabad traffic police safety campaign have triggered outrage for advising women to stay home to avoid rape.

The posters, seen on road dividers in Sola and Chandlodia, carried messages such as “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?”. They were removed after criticism from the opposition.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic West) Neeta Desai clarified that the traffic police had only sponsored posters related to road safety, not women’s safety. She said the controversial posters were created by NGO Satarkta Group without police approval.

“The NGO had approached us for traffic awareness programs and showed us only traffic-related posters. These controversial posters were not shown to us and were put up without our consent,” Desai said, adding that they were removed as soon as the matter came to light.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) hit out at the BJP-led state government, saying the posters highlighted the poor state of women’s safety in Gujarat.

“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,” AAP said in a statement. It also questioned whether women in the state should be expected to stay indoors at night.