Young women in Bathinda, India, are facing a tidal wave of sexual harassment, and local police appear unable to stem the crisis. In the past month, at least two incidents of stalking and harassment have been reported in the city's busiest areas; in one case, a group of young men chased two women to a police checkpoint, where they escaped by laughing off the lewd comments they had shouted at the women. Most chillingly, a recent incident involved a young woman being surrounded and nearly kidnapped by three men in a crowded public area in the middle of the day. Though a police station is nearby, the men fled without arrest.
