Need strict action against objectionable messages

Photo for representational purpose

An 18-year-old cab booking agent was arrested from Bihar for allegedly sending obscene messages, photographs and videos to a Mumbai woman, the police stated recently. A news service said that the woman had filed a complaint in July.

Allegedly, the agent and the woman's husband had some argument when the man had booked a cab for a trip. Post that, the agent had been sending objectionable messages and pictures to the woman.

It is important that the agent, who has been nabbed, gets stringent punishment in accordance with the law. These messages or pictures when sent, with sexually explicit content to women, are often trivialised or brushed aside.

These messages and content can be extremely disturbing and threatening too. There has to be an understanding that in many cases, it does not stop at sending messages but can escalate further. Whether that happens or not, it is very important that action is swift and stringent in such cases. We now inhabit a cyber world as much as a physical one. Digitisation, mobile phones and the internet are modes of communication. Sending explicit messages via these mediums is akin to sending them in the physical, real world.

One must also remember that women are vulnerable. Cab booking aggregators and food apps, any kind of online service for that matter, means giving telephone details to the person concerned. This may leave them open to harassment and intimidation. Events not just in this case but in others, too, validate this theory. In the case of any kind of argument, altercation or problem, these fears definitely have even more merit.

Take all complaints very seriously. Even women, who are targets of this behaviour, if they are the victims, must take action to stamp this out with alacrity and take it to the authorities if needed.