Chennai: Poor political will, non-deterrent policing, unpatrolled neighbourhoods, unlit lanes, and secluded spots are blamed for 12 sexual assaults in 24 hours in Chennai and its suburbs. The incidents include the assault of a Class VII student, a seven-year-old, and a woman with mental disability.
Police Arrests Offer Little Comfort
Police arrested suspects in all 12 cases, but the speed of arrests offered cold comfort. The question remains: why were so many women and children assaulted in the first place? The incidents occurred just six days after the formation of the Singappen Special Force (SSF) on June 9. The 70-team SSF is mandated to monitor, anticipate, and prevent such crimes.
Inadequate Police Presence
Chennai's police force numbers 23,000 personnel across 105 stations. In practice, each station deploys only four patrol officers, roughly 500 personnel patrolling a city of 10 million at any given time, supplemented by 300 bike patrols. Across the city's vast, unlit interior lanes, that presence is nearly invisible.
The Tambaram police commissionerate, carved out of Chennai in January 2022 to oversee the urbanising southern fringes, covers an area nearly twice the size of Chennai commissionerate. But it has a sanctioned strength of just 4,000 personnel across 25 stations.
The northern fringes are worse. Tiruvallur district sprawls over 2,700 square kilometres, but has only 1,300 policemen. Avadi, spread over 626 square kilometres, has 4,600 policemen on duty. Three of the 12 cases were in Avadi.
Challenges in Suburban and Rural Areas
Unlike Chennai city, the jurisdictions of Avadi, Tambaram, and Tiruvallur sprawl across vast suburban, semi-rural, and rural stretches, making policing more challenging. Tiruvallur district superintendent Vivekananda Shukla said the department maintains a list of vulnerable hotspots under regular monitoring, and patrol routes are changed every day based on assessment.
B Kamalanathan, a software professional near Manimangalam, where a 10-year-old was abused at a construction site on Sunday, said bluntly: “We have never seen police patrolling on interior roads near Tambaram. There is a police outpost in the area, but it always remains locked.”
Migrant Workers and Safety Gaps
Three of the latest string of incidents involved guest workers. Tamil Nadu has roughly 13 lakh registered guest workers. Contractors are legally required to verify antecedents and register them with police, a safeguard that appears unenforced. The labour department is now collecting data on children accompanying migrant workers to coordinate their enrolment in schools. “We already have data on registered guest workers. Now we have asked our officers to collect data on children accompanying them to ensure their safety,” a senior official said.
