Commuters told not to cosy up

Behave! Stop getting intimate on metro trains. This is the diktat the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has given to its commuters.

The new suggestion comes after a fresh clip was uploaded online, days after video clips of couples getting intimate on trains went viral on porn sites. Stung twice, the DMRC is now urging commuters to “maintain decorum, discipline and etiquette while travelling on a mass transit system.”

The DMRC blamed the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) for leakage of video clips. The DMRC suggestion drew mixed response from activists. “Such an advisory is a typical way of victimising the victim. The authorities should themselves maintain the norm of providing safety and security to the people,” said Annie Raja, general secretary of National Federation of Indian Women.

Ranjana Kumari of National Mission for Empowerment of Women said: “The Delhi Metro can’t make such a suggestion. It can’t wash hands of its duties. But at the same time people should know that they can’t take the bedroom to Metro. Any act that constitutes indecency and has the potential to become a material for a porn site should not be allowed in public places.”

The video clip shows a couple caught in a sexual act on the stairs of a Metro station. A spokesperson said: “The DMRC has passed this clip to its chief security commissioner for investigation.”

Even commuters said it was not completely correct on the part of Delhi Metro to make such suggestions.

“It’s more or less saying like don’t go out in the evening or else you will be molested. It  has been over two weeks and DMRC is not able to find out where the breach took place. When it can’t keep tabs on its staff, how can it ask us to do anything,” said 23-year-old student Ruchika Thakur.

Earlier, over 250 clips of couples in near-empty trains were made into two to eight minute videos and uploaded on porn sites. “The earlier video clips of similar nature are also under examination by the cyber crime cell of the Delhi Police,” said the DMRC spokesperson.
Before complaining to the cyber cell, the DMRC had blamed the CISF for the leakage as it monitors the CCTV footage.