Kolkata: In a shocking statement, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has proposed a night curfew for girls to protect them from sexual assault.
Her statement came after a girl from Odisha, a second-year student of a private medical college in West Bengal’s Durgapur, was gangraped close to the campus on Friday evening.
“… The girls should not be allowed to go outside (college) at night. They have to protect themselves also. There is a forest area. Police are searching all the people. Nobody will be excused. Whoever is guilty will be punished strictly. Three people have already been arrested. We will take stringent action… When it happens in other states, it is also condemnable. Such incidents have taken place in Manipur, UP, Bihar, Odisha; we also think the government must take stringent action there. In our state, we charge-sheeted the people within 1-2 months, and the lower court gave the order to hang the accused,” Mamata said about the case.
Mamata and the Trinamool Congress government have come under fire, both from civil society and the opposition for regular cases of sexual assault on women in the state. There was public outcry after a PG Intern of the state-run R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata was raped and murdered while on duty at the hospital in 2024.
This is not the first time that Mamata has come out with such a solution. After the R G Kar rape and murder, she proposed that women employees, including doctors, not be given night shifts. This plan was shelved after protests erupted.
A large number of women work night shifts, particularly in sectors like IT, in Kolkata and other cities in West Bengal.
In the Durgapur case, the survivor had stepped out of the college with a male friend for a snack around 8.30 pm when they were surrounded by a group of men. Her friend fled while the men dragged her to a forested area behind the college and gang-raped her.
Durgapur is not a small town that shuts down by 8.30 pm. It is a bustling industrial hub with shopping malls, multiplexes, restaurants and pubs. The city stays awake and active till late.
The police have arrested three persons in the case till now. A search is underway for two more accused.