Book review: A city to loiter in

Book: Why Loiter? Women And Risk On Mumbai Streets
Shilpa Phadke, Sameera Khan, Shilpa Ranade
Penguin
280 pages
Rs299 

Imagine an Indian city with street corners full of women: chatting, laughing, breast-feeding, exchanging corporate notes or planning protest meetings.”

With this evocative opening line, Why Loiter? Women And Risk On Mumbai Streets rams home a key fact: Women in Indian cities don’t loiter. Men hanging around with seemingly nothing else to do are a familiar sight, but women aren’t.

Why?

This is the question that authors Shilpa Phadke, Sameera Khan and Shilpa Ranade set about exploring in the book, which is based on research collected over three years for a project titled Gender and Space. The research, and therefore the book, is based in Mumbai because it is seen as India’s most modern city, the best place for women to live and work in, where they are the most visible and lead the most unfettered lives.

The authors don’t agree. Their carefully constructed arguments show us that, contrary to popular perception, Mumbai women or ‘Bombay Girls’, of all types, backgrounds, classes and orientation — addressed in different segments — operate under various constraints when they go out into their city.

The writers contend that Mumbai’s women “feel compelled to demonstrate at any given time that they have a legitimate reason to be where they are. Commuting to work, ferrying children to school or going shopping are seen as acceptable reasons for women to access public space”. Presumably, this is because of society’s preoccupation with women’s ‘safety’. It is the same preoccupation that results in most debates on women’s issues revolving around violence against women, more than anything else.

And once out in a public space, there are other problems. In a segment titled ‘Peeing’, the writers say “If public toilets were to be your guide to imagining the city, what would they say about Mumbai? First, they would imply that there are very few women in public as compared to men… Second, they would suggest that if Mumbai women need to pee, they do so at home… And third, they would say, since even fewer facilities are open after 9pm, respectable women have no business being out in public after dark.”

The book examines access to public space even for different kinds of women. For instance, the segregated compartments on Mumbai’s trains might make commuting easier for women, but there are prejudices at play even here. “Hijras are met with annoyance mixed with anxiety. Transgender people and lesbian women who dress ambiguously face reactions ranging from confusion to hostility.”

The writers take their analysis a step further to talk about women simply having fun in public spaces, and in this lies the force of their beliefs: “Most debates on public space are disproportionately focused on danger rather than pleasure… Pleasure or fun is seen as threatening because it fundamentally questions the idea that women’s presence in public space is acceptable only when they have a purpose.”

In the section ‘In Search of Pleasure’, the writers set out to find out who is having fun and how. Bandra Girls, Muslim Girls, Rich Girls, Slum Girls, Working Girls — they all have their ways of having fun, but it is always conditional. The professional Mumbai woman can be ambitious but “this woman must produce a carefully calibrated blend of professionalism and respectability… The good professional woman is expected not to bring gender or any gender-related ‘excuses’ such as childcare, household work, discrimination, sexual harassment or safety concerns into the workplace.”

So what has all this to do with loitering?

In the section titled ‘Imagining Utopias’, the authors make the case for “loitering as a fundamental act of claiming public space and ultimately, a more inclusive citizenship… Loiter without purpose and meaning. Loiter without being asked what time of the day it is, why we are here, what we are wearing, and whom we are with. That is when we will truly belong to the city and the city to us.”

Why Loiter? deals with complex themes, bringing new dimensions to standard arguments. It is not just an interesting read, but an important contribution as well. To the writers’ credit, the book doesn’t get bogged down by the ‘academics’ of it all; it is informative but accessible. The authors weave anecdotes and real-life experiences with feminist theory and research findings in a tone that is friendly and casual, making their message that much stronger.

You don’t need to be a feminist to enjoy this book, only someone who is interested in learning a new, and important, perspective.