'Licence to pester Indian women' - text service stopped

Officials in a central Indian state have stopped a text messaging service giving out drivers' contact details after men used it to pester women.

The facility, launched a year ago, was withdrawn after women complained to the Madhya Pradesh transport department that they were being harassed by men.

Under the scheme, anyone could send a text to access a vehicle owner's name, address and phone number. Officials say most of the information being sought pertained to young women.



Officials say the original idea was to provide "citizen-centric services" and assist police and investigating agencies.

But soon the department found that the service had become particularly popular with men seeking to contact young women.

Although officials say information provided through cell phone text messages has been shortened mainly because "the number of messages sent to the transport department has increased several fold", they admit that the harassment complaints "were a big reason too".