Women’s privacy and safety have come under relentless attack irrespective of their surroundings. This has been evidenced by recent incidents where women have been filmed while bathing at the Maha Kumbh and even recorded while receiving treatment at a maternity hospital.
At the Maha Kumbh, women have been filmed in towels, in drenched clothes or while changing. The videos were recorded and uploaded for sale on social media websites including Facebook and YouTube. While on platforms like Telegram, groups have been formed which sell such explicit videos in packages for Rs 1,999 to Rs 3000, reported India Today.
The same report also mentions how the term ‘open bathing’ saw a surge in Telegram search results between February 12-18 in India amid the Maha Kumbh. While Telegram groups selling such videos have since been deleted, explicit content is still available on YouTube and Facebook. People are seen leaving obscene comments on the videos asking for Telegram links and ‘uncut versions’.
Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh and national president of Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh Yadav, has acknowledged the grave matter and has asked the Uttar Pradesh government and National Commission for Women (NCW) to take action. “There is a lot of anger among the devotees on the news of the pictures of women power who came to earn merit in Maha Kumbh being sold openly…Uttar Pradesh and National Women Commission should take immediate cognizance and become active and strict action should be taken against all those responsible,” he said in a post on X.
Videos of women at maternity hospital surface in Gujarat
Recently, another incident came to light from Gujarat where CCTV videos of a maternity clinic were leaked on the internet. The videos from Payal Maternity Home in Rajkot gained massive outrage leading to a probe being launched on the matter.
Seven videos were uploaded on a YouTube channel, ‘Megha MBBS’, in the month of January with links to a Telegram group offering similar videos given in the description boxes. Initial investigation by the Cyber Crime police revealed that the videos had first been uploaded in September last year on the Telegram group. The hospital has responded saying that they suspect their CCTV cameras were hacked and are unaware of how the videos were leaked.
A case has been registered with the Rajkot Cyber Crime police under sections 66E, and 67 of the Cyber Crime IT Act.
