Delhi Journalist Gets Harassed By Kids Because Her ‘Legs Were Visible’. WTF!

Don’t you love it when you’re blatantly being yourself and wearing what you want and not caring what people in the Rape capital of the country are thinking? Well, I do. It is my own personal brand of revolution- doing whatever I want, wearing anything I want to, and never justifying my choices to anyone. Well, that worked for me quite well until now if I wore my headphones during public commute, walked only in crowded places and just stayed careful in general- true to my social conditioning as an Indian woman.

Today, all of that changed when I didn’t just get harassed at a ‘reasonable’ hour of the evening but I got abused by a group of kids. Yes, kids that were surely less than ten years of age.

I was sitting in a lovely cafe with my friend in Meherchand Market when a couple of young kids approached us by knocking on the glass door which we faced.

We proceeded to ignore the young beggars as we usually do on the street. Things got worrisome when I found more kids joining them and then proceeding to look at my legs that were visible in a dress.

What happened next was unbelievable and they started commenting on my dressing, how they could see ‘everything’ even as I was sitting on a chair with my legs crossed.

They then entered the cafe and started abusing explicitly because we wouldn’t buy them food or give them money.

I only proceeded to call the manager to try and keep them away but they relentlessly kept barging in and verbally attacking us. I threatened to call the police but the kids laughed at that suggestion. It’s then that I wondered if police would be able to do anything except maybe beat them which is hardly a solution.

While my female friend and I had decided to walk back to the metro station, we decided against it and booked a cab to get away from this scene.

Considering how ‘convenient’ cabs are, the cab didn’t spot us and we had to get out of the cafe and the group of boys followed us for a few yards.

When they saw us ignoring them, they threw stones that didn’t hit us. I can’t believe I was scared of kids today.

The cab came just in time for us to finally get rid of them.

All I know is that will never be able to get rid of this scarring incident.

Congrats to us as a society- this is what our children are learning. This is the real India. This is what our ‘privileged’ girl child will deal with.

(My intention behind this status is to know more about your own experience. Is there a way to deal with these children? Can any action be taken? Please guide and help me spread the word, even if it is on social media.)