CHENNAI: Their maiden visit to the city on Friday began on a nightmarish note for 10 women from Koodankulam and surrounding villages as they were surrounded by a posse of cops the moment they stepped out of the Egmore Railway Station and whisked away to the police station. Just as the women, who arrived by the Ananthapuri Express around 9 am were looking for a mode of transport to reach their destination - Women’s Collective office in Periyarnagar - a man in civvies enquired about where they wanted to go. But, before they realised what was happening, they found themselves in the midst of police men and women, forcing them to board a police vehicle even as a crowd of curious onlookers gathered to watch. The women, who had come to Chennai under the leadership of Lidwin (60), a social worker from Nagercoil, for a meet at the Collective Office and to interact with women in the coastal villages near Chennai and Kalpakkam, were in a state of shock even three hours after they were dropped at their destination around 11 am by the police. They said they felt humiliated as they were stepping into a police station for the first time and one of them said that she was even reduced to tears at the station, where they were grilled for about half an hour. Even as the personnel at the Egmore station were planning to shift all the 11 women, including Lidwin, to a marriage hall, Sheelu, who runs the Collective, called up the police to explain that they had come for a meet at her NGO. Then, after several calls from other activists, the officials let them go. Narrating their bitter experience, they said that they were united in their fight against the Koodunkulam Nuclear Power Plant.
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