Girls' mobile use may lead them to get raped: UP Women's Commission member

Aligarh: Another patriarchal blame game regarding the sexual assault faced by girls has started doing the rounds on Twitter over a bizarre finding by a member of the Uttar Pradesh Women's Commission. Commission member Meena Kumari has found mobile phones on girls' hands as one of the reasons the girls are getting raped.

Kumari during a public event in Aligarh on Wednesday suggested that girls' mobile phone use would lead to rape because of which they should not be given phones.

"Girls should always be under strict vigilance. It should be checked where they are going and with whom," Kumari remarked in the video that went viral on Twitter. "They should not be given mobile phones. They talk on the phone and later elope for marriage," she added as she responded to a question related to rising cases of rape in UP.

Adding to her controversial claim, Kumari added that it was due to the carelessness of the parents, especially mothers that the atrocities against women occur.

Sharing the video, the chairperson of the Delhi Commission of Women Swati Maliwal stated that the reason for rape is such a bad mentality that increases the morale of the criminals. "Prime Minister is requested to sensitize all the women's commissions, one day send them to see the working style of the Delhi Women's Commission, we teach them," she tweeted.

The national convener of the Congress, Ruchira Chaturvedi, also took to Twitter saying, "so after Chowmein, jeans, now mobile phones are responsible for rape."

Earlier, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat named ripped jeans worn by women as the trigger factor of crime against women while Haryana's Khap leader Jitender Chattar was alleged to have said chowmein leads to sexually arousing as it causes hormonal imbalance.