Ghaziabad mother's 'code word' protects teenager from ill-intentioned stranger
Given the vulnerable times, parents should adopt smart methods that would protect their children in their absence. A Ghaziabad-based woman's strategy of teaching "code word" to her children saved her daughter from an ill-intentioned stranger, possibly a trafficker. On Sunday, when the 12-year-old was buying chips from a nearby shop, a man approached her and said her father had met with an accident.
He told her to come with him to her father. But using her presence of mind, the teenager asked for the 'code word' her father would use if he wished to meet her. She didn't stop at that. She asked him more 'code word' related questions, which puzzled and scared the man, and he fled from the scene before she could raise an alarm.
The Class-VII student who lives in Indirapuram with her parents and two siblings said the code word can be anything, from a god's name to a small phrase. Her father, a software engineer, said that initially he would forget the passwords, but after Sunday's incident, he realized their importance. Their mother changed the passwords every month and made everyone memorize them, he said.
Meanwhile, the mother expressed pride in her daughter. "Giving a lesson is one thing and using it in an unexpected situation is another," she said. The couple also has a 7-year-old son and a 17-year-old daughter. "My wife keeps a close watch on our children and regularly gives them lessons in self-defence and how to behave in difficult situations," said the proud husband.
