The Lucknow Police will install AI-enabled cameras across public places in the city that will 'alert' the nearest police control room on the basis of "facial expressions" of women, who may be subjected to stalking or eve-teasing, reported Bar and Bench.
As per the plan, under Uttar Pradesh's 'Mission Shakti' programme, the AI-enabled camera will click photos of women in distress and send it to the control room after which necessary action will be taken.
Lucknow Police Commissioner DK Thakur, speaking at an event in the city, reportedly said:
According to The Times of India, Thakur said that the police have identified 200 hotspots where the movement of women is maximum and "where most complaints have been received.”
Social activist and Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Sumaiya Rana slammed the Yogi Adityanath government, saying that the state is neither taking steps to stop rapes against women nor punishing perpetrators of crimes but is posing a stunt with the move to install AI-enabled cameras.
Speaking to The Quint, Rana said that women no longer feel safe in UP.
Former Lucknow University Vice Chancellor Professor Rooprekha Verma also criticised the move, saying that it looks like the decision was just a ploy to get votes in the next state elections.
However, the surveillance is a bigger threat and violates the privacy of women, many people took to social media to say.
“Stop tracking and stalking women, violating their privacy. Protect us from peeping policemen,” tweeted All India Progressive Women's Association’s Secretary Kavita Krishnan.
Others on Twitter asked why India was focusing on state surveillance when far less money could be spent to educate men and reform abusers, stalkers and rapists.
While some pointed that even in surveillance, the onus is placed on women and not the perpetrator of crime.
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