Women should be able to ‘loiter’, be themselves

It is rather ironic, feels author Shilpa Ranade, 39, that in Mumbai, the woman alone is held responsible for her own safety on the streets. 

There is an unsaid assumption, says Ranade, an architect, that women belong in private spaces. “No one dreams of suggesting to men that they should restrict their access to public spaces because men get assaulted too. But if a woman gets assaulted the first question that is asked of her is why she was out there in the first place,” she says.

This is exactly why Ranade, Shilpa Phadke, 40, assistant professor at Centre for Media and Cultural Studies at Tiss and Sameera Khan, 43, a journalist, decided to write Why Loiter? Women and Risk on Mumbai’s Streets, which released in March last year.

Supporting the Stayfree DNA I Can Woman’s Half Marathon on March 11, Ranade says, “What we really need to demand is not just that the city should be as safe as it can be for all people but also that women’s right to be in public spaces with or without a purpose should be unquestioned.”

Khan says she often finds herself strategising her movements in Mumbai. She often takes the longer route if it is well-lit and crowded. She often covers herself up with stoles or scarfs, and used to carry chilli powder and knuckle dusters when she was younger. “Women don’t need a paternalistic protective gaze to be safe. We need better infrastructure in terms of lighting. Urban planners and law enforcers must have a basic attitude that women have the right to be out in a public place and be safe,” says Khan.

While conducting research for their book, says Phadke, the authors came across interesting factors related to women’s safety. In 2004-05, they conducted a study of 35 suburban railway stations — assessing them on lighting — as street lighting was one of the most important factors that made women feel safe.

However, they found that toilets were often badly lit and staircases on foot over-bridges often had only one tubelight.

“Also, contrary to popular assumptions of modernist planning, zoning is not the best thing for women,” says Phadke. Business districts like BKC or Nariman Point that empty out at night make women feel insecure, she explains. Mixed used development on the other hand makes women feel safer as business establishments.

The authors say their study on women's safety in Mumbai threw up a paradox, too. "Women often feel compelled to produce respectability and protect the 'honour' of their families even at the cost of their own safety," says Ranade. During their research, the authors met a young woman living in a predominantly Gujarati-Jain building on Malabar Hill. She was always dropped off by her boyfriend at some distance from her building as her family did not know about him. She would then walk down the dark and deserted lane alone, however late the hour.

"'Family honour' demanded that she value her reputation over her actual safety. This is not something out of the ordinary, but something that many women across the city do without thinking twice," says Khan. That this is so easily taken for granted demonstrates beyond doubt that visible virtue is valued over actual safety in Mumbai.