In the past few days, everyone has been talking about Sreelakshmi Satheesh, a motivational speaker and education consultant from Thiruvananthapuram, who works in Thevara, Kochi. The way she faced the pervert, who harassed her and set Rs 25,000 as her price, by finding him and making him donate the money to a charity home, set an example for all women.
The episode happened on December 22 when Sreelakshmi got a call from an unknown number at 11.30 pm. The male voice on the other end asked her if he could get her in exchange for money.
“I was shocked,” Sreelakshmi says. “I was sleeping and it took me a few minutes to comprehend things. I cut the call, but he kept on calling. Then, I started receiving calls from other numbers. I got panicked and switched off the phone.” Sreelakshmi, who is the executive director of an educational consultancy, recounts the dreadful night. .
Sreelakshmi would give her visiting card to students in schools and colleges after motivational classes. She thought that someone might have misused it and decided to trace the person behind it.
She called back to the first number and asked him to go through her Facebook profile before putting a price tag on her.
“My Facebook profile has posts about my social activities and classes. Anybody who goes through it would get a clear idea about me,” she says.
“When my tone became firm, he panicked and apologised. He is a degree second-year student. I sort of threatened him saying that I would send him to the police station and told him to give the phone to his parents. His father is a teacher and mother, a housewife, who didn’t even know what WhatsApp is. His parents started pleading for their son. I told him to send the screenshot of the source from where he got my number and within no time, I got it,” she adds.
The screen grab was even more shocking for Sreelakshmi. “The number was shared by a boy in my neighbourhood who always treated me respectfully. For me, he was like a brother. He shared it on a WhatsApp group, which is more or less like a porn site with the tag line ‘super sadhanama’. Since it was a WhatsApp contact, my photo was also there.”
Photo of donation receipt shared by Sreelakshmi on Facebook.
A lot of fears rushed to her mind and like any one, the first thought that crossed Sreelakshmi’s mind was to commit suicide. But, then, she changed her mind.
“I fought and worked hard to reach this far. I had done a pickle business through facebook and done a catering service after completing MCA for my living and to continue my studies. Why should I commit suicide for something like this? This thought changed my mind,” she says.
The next morning, she called the boy in the neighbourhood who shared her number on WhatsApp. As expected, he denied it first and then said it was shared unknowingly. But, he had to spill the beans in front of Sreelakshmi’s insistence.
However, the chapter was not over. Soon, Sreelakshmi got a call from the youth wing leader of a political party to save the boy.
“I couldn’t bear a party worker talking in favour of a person who put my honour at stake. I gave him an earful. I told him to come to my home with the boy’s parents the next day to discuss the matter,” Sreelakshmi says.
It was Christmas and they didn’t come. She called the leader and eventually they came to meet Sreelakshmi on December 26. When the boy’s father begged for his son, Sreelakshmi decided to drop the police case, but put forward two demands — that the boy should donate Rs 25,000 to a charity home and the party should expel him.
“I said Rs 25,000 because that was the amount the final caller said. I wanted the party to expel him because if someone like him is part of a political party, where is our safety? I gave them three options — Abhaya, Gandhi Bhavan and Sree Chithra, three organisations I know well and have trust,” she says.
She got threat calls from the same party leader who wanted the settlement amount to be reduced. But Sreelakshmi was adamant. Finally, on December 28, they remitted Rs 25,000 at Sree Chithra Poor Home in Thiruvananthapuram which confirmed to Sreelakshmi the remittance. However, she is not sure if the boy was expelled from the party.
When she posted the whole incident on Facebook, many said that it was done for popularity.
“I posted it on Facebook for my safety. I hail from a simple family and a political party is involved in this. If anything happens in future, everyone would ask why I remained silent when it happened,” she explains.
But Sreelakshmi seldom imagined that it would go viral.
“There may be people who blame me for all this. But I am happy that it could inspire many women. This is not my case alone. Every girl faces it. A section of males believes that if a girl is online after 10 pm, the green light on the chat window is an invitation for sex chat,” says Sreelakshmi. “What shocked me even more was that people were waiting for a number to call. They are the real culprits. For everyone, woman is someone to share bed with. I am not being feminist,” she elucidates.
As a next step, she is planning to form a panel of five on Facebook for women to share their problems. “There will be a panel for each district. If I could get KELSA (Kerala State Legal Services Authority) support, it would be more effective. The panel would listen to the problems and give unforgettable punishments to the accused. And if they find women guilty, she would also get the same.”
