Opinion No woman’s land

The journalist assaulted in the mill compound was not there to loiter,she was there on work. She had done her own safety audit too. She was there with a male colleague and was on assignment in daytime. (Would the anger against the attack on her be qualified if she was not there for a story? What if she had simply walked into the compound for a lark,drawn perhaps by its contrast to the rest of the neighbourhood,its aura of a lost moment of time?)

As the investigation proceeded,the Mumbai Police put out a list of “272 unsafe spots for women” in the city,deserted like Shakti Mills and frequented by “vagabonds,drug addicts and alcoholics” — that band of itinerants who never fail to evoke middle-class loathing. It said that owners and caretakers would be contacted and asked to ensure “security” on those properties. When that news was posted on Facebook,a concerned mother said she would inform her daughter and friends to watch out for those spots.

Where was she when they raped her? —- is also a part of the FAQ a woman so assaulted is subject to. Was it day or night? Had she stepped out alone? But also,what business had she there? From her answers is concocted an image which is used to judge her complicity in the crime. And for other women,an example — of the woman you should not be,the route you ought not to take,the hour at which you should remove yourself from the street or the cinema if you don’t wish to be raped.

But look at the many answers to that first question. In December last year,a 23-year-old paramedic had taken public transport with a friend — that simple act by which thousands of residents stake claim to the city — when a gang of men brutalised her. In the days since the rape at Shakti Mills,a man has raped a 13-year-old girl who was his neighbour and another raped his disabled cousin in Mumbai. According to the National Crime Records Bureau,in 97 per cent of rape cases in 2010,the assailants were people known to the victims. Many of them were girls and babies,preyed on in the “safety of their homes” by their kin or those who had power over them.

Despite that significant figure,after every rape which makes it to the headlines,the city,the village,the neighbourhood shrinks a little more for women. Worried family members,lawkeepers and legislators advise us to be more vigilant,less reckless,to come home as soon as your work is done. Actor Hema Malini has suggested that women not go out alone,while Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit had thought a woman journalist driving at night was being adventurous. We are asked to police our dress and demeanour,our routes and routines,so that they do not invite (there’s the word) stares or groping or rape. Like the Mumbai Police,they helpfully hand out a map of the city,neatly divided into safe and unsafe spots,tell us which alleys to take and which neighbourhoods are no woman’s land. It’s a perverse fantasy being sold as common sense,which takes more chunks of the city away from us.

The geography of rape plays out in other ways,reinforcing the experience of living in an unequal city. The reportage which followed the Delhi gangrape and the Mumbai attack has justifiably been criticised for demonising the poor and the slumdwellers,as the accused came from that section of society. If pockets of the city are tarred as unsafe,and the poor tagged as predators,would the women who live there have recourse to justice? One wonders why the ragpicker and sex worker,who had been raped in the mill premises a few months ago,didn’t report the crime.

As women,we distrust the city enough. If we are affluent,we barricade ourselves against it by opting out of public transport systems,by avoiding unfamiliar roads after dark,by ignoring ill-lit pavements,by strategising endlessly when we do step out. To the extent that it cripples us. But like the fear that Shakti Mills evoked in me,that fear is a false assurance. It lulls us into believing first,that the enemy is outside and not in our midst. And second,that by retreating into our “safe” zones we have secured ourselves or our daughters.

Perhaps,to be disillusioned thus is an even more crippling state. But it can help us realise that safety cannot be bought piecemeal for one section of society. That if we don’t stake our claim to streets,playgrounds,buses,trains,offices and derelict buildings with our presence and our bodies,this city will never be a safe place.

amrita.dutta@expressindia.com

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