The heart-wrenching incident of rape and murder of the trainee doctor at R G Kar hospital, which brought questions on women safety to the fore, is also making puja organisers of the city take the subject as one of the topmost priorities.

Three Durga Puja organisers in Kolkata have taken additional and special measures to ensure safety and minimise hassles of overcrowding for women pandal-hoppers.

Advertisement

The three clubs, including Dum Dum Park Tarun Sangha, Hindustan Park and Jodhpur Park-95 Pally jointly with the battery giant, Eveready, to play voices of eminent singer Usha Uthup and popular Bengali actress Ritabhari Chakraborty at the puja venues reminding all pandal-hoppers of the importance of respecting women during the festive celebrations through these audio messages. The megaphones at the three pandals, which traditionally have been used by men presenters to make public announcements, have decided to replace it with women voices giving out some tongue-in-cheek messages ensuring crowds at the venues remain cordial and safe. “Durga Puja celebrates the power of goddess Durga, a symbol of strength and protection,” said senior vice-president and business unit head – battery and flashlight of Eveready, Anirban Banerjee. The campaign is our way of contributing to the safety of women during the biggest festival of Bengal,” he added.

In addition to the audio message, the organisers of the three Durga Puja clubs are also planning to deploy a siren squad or a group of volunteers who will oversee women’s safety and crowd management aspects inside the Puja pandals. The volunteers would be seen wearing T-shirts with messages like, ‘Kachher lok na holey, beshi kachhe ashben na,’ or even ‘Nijer konui nijer kachhe rakhun’, printed on them.

Notably, Hindustan Park Sarbojanin, this year has tried to portray the beauty of life without conflicts among humans. While the Jodhpur Park-95 Pally has already had its unveiling done by chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Dum Dum Park Tarun Sangha has R N Tagore’s ‘Muktadhara’ depicting the impacts of efforts of disrupting nature by humans in the form of construction of dams on rivers, is taking further steps to ensure enhanced safety to women visitors. The organisers are mulling over plans to allow VIP entry to women groups visiting the pandals between 11 pm to 4 am during peak puja days to minimise hassles of overcrowding and enabling them to avail a transport during the wee hours.

“Among various other initiatives, we thought of considering the women groups who come for pandal-hopping during late hours. Any women group approaching our volunteers during the period would be allowed to see the pandal through a VIP pass,” informed the secretary of the club, Souro Ghosh.

As the second new initiative, the organisers are also taking steps to display the helpline numbers of the local police, extensively so that women visitors in any situation of distress could be able to contact them easily.