Run a Google search for the words ‘hidden cameras in changing rooms’, and you will come up with 1,53,000 hits. While some of them are news reports about actual incidents around the world, and a few have tips on how to detect hidden cameras in changing rooms, the vast majority are of lurid images of women caught unknowingly on camera in their most vulnerable moments; the images put out for all the world to see. This horrible practice seems to be on the increase everywhere, including in our very own Goa.
Whatever we may think of Union Minister Smriti Irani’s dodgy doings in the field of education (and there are many), we must all be very thankful to her for having spotted a camera inside a trial room of well-known apparel brand showroom FabIndia in Candolim. Ms Irani, who was in Goa on holiday with her husband, was shopping at the store when she noticed the device. She telephoned Calangute BJP MLA Michael Lobo, who arrived at the showroom with police and filed a complaint. A hard disk and the camera have been seized, and the staff of the store is being interrogated. “We checked the recordings, everything above the stomach level could be seen,” Lobo told a national television channel.
This is not the first time that a camera has been spotted in a changing room. However, that this one was spotted by none other than a Union minister should ring alarm bells loud enough to be heard by authorities at the very top. It was not long ago — on Monday, March 16, to be precise — that Vasco police in a series of surprise raids, checked at least 35 changing rooms in tailoring shops and readymade garment shops of Goa’s port town looking for hidden cameras. Vasco PI Sagar Ekoskar, who initiated the operation, told the media that the police had acted on information given by a woman. Though the PI said the operation was planned and executed in complete secrecy, and police were informed only minutes before the inspections took place, no cameras were found in the shops examined, even as the police checked locks, fans, pin holes, mirrors, etc, to see if cameras were fitted.
About five years ago, hidden cameras in changing rooms first made news in Goa, when infuriated residents of Santa Cruz, a village near Panjim, attacked and trashed a shop that sold imported women’s undergarments, and had a camera in its trial room. Now, it seems to have become a common thing. Just two days after the Vasco raid, police in distant Muzaffarabad (UP) raided garment shops to check on allegations of the filming of female customers through hidden cameras in changing rooms. The city’s traders reacted by closing their businesses and took to the streets against the police raids, blocking traffic for over two hours.
The problem is that cameras are becoming ubiquitous. Nearly every cell phone is now a camera. Most can do video recording too. And they are easy to misuse. Last week, an employee of an upscale clothing brand was arrested in New Delhi for leaving his cell phone on record mode in the changing room. But while mobile phones are somewhat easy to spot, there are many tiny recording devices small enough to fit into the head of a screw, in buttons, pens, spectacles or cigarette packets. A few weeks ago, police in Wichita, Kansas, USA, found a camera in a YMCA changing room for families that looked like an ordinary clothing hook, attached to the back of the door. It had a pinhole camera hidden inside, and gave a clear view of most of the room in the camera frame. These devices are freely advertised everywhere, including in India, and are easily available over the Internet. Some of them even have wireless transmitters that enable offenders to view the footage from a distance, without ever having to come near the device. Not only are cameras getting smaller, but huge amounts of footage can be recorded on a tiny memory card.
The problem is by no means specific to India. In Mexico, the retail industry actually tried to justify the use of cameras in trial rooms, saying they were an anti-shoplifting measure. In many of its Florida outlets, upscale American chain store Macy’s, installs the doors of its trial rooms backwards, so that any employee or customer standing by the door can see inside, but the person changing cannot see out. When the story broke in the media, Macy’s said installing the doors backwards was a “loss-prevention method”, to deter the theft of merchandise…!
Will this be the defence of the Candolim store too? It cannot, and should not be allowed. Basic human ethics and decency can never become hostage to such commercial claptrap. People have a right to their privacy, both for mind and body. Neither can be violated. The offender in the Candolim hidden camera case must be identified and awarded exemplary punishment.
