In a bid to prevent incidents of eve-teasing and molestation, Lucknow police will install artificial intelligence-enabled cameras at major public places in the city, to read facial expressions of women in distress and alert the cops.
According to officials, five such cameras would be installed at different places in the city in the first phase. ''We will be choosing the spots which are frequented by the women and from where we had received the maximum number of complaints of harassment of women,'' said an official on Friday.
The police has identified two hundred hotspots in the state capital for this purpose.
The cameras are being installed as part of 'Mission Shakti', a government program intended to empower women. The cameras would alert the nearest police station and help could reach women quickly, the official added.
The decision, however, invited sharp criticisms from experts and citizens alike, who said that it would violate women's privacy. Netizens also reacted sharply to the proposal and took to the social media to criticise it.
''It amounts to violation of privacy....it also a violation of our fundamental rights,'' remarked a woman resident of the city.
(Published 22 January 2021, 10:03 IST)
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