A couple of years ago I went to renew my driving licence. Walking through the sprawling government office, as far as my eyes could see, there were only men. Something clicked in my mind; I couldn’t unsee it. Afterwards, I kept noticing how men dominate public spaces – markets, parks, government offices. They loiter, they hang out in clusters on sidewalks, they crowd public transport.
In India, women do not loiter; their relationship with public space is purely functional – especially in northern India, where I live. But even elsewhere, as in southern or eastern India, where women move about outside their homes more, their relationship with the public space is strictly utilitarian – going from point A to point B, often accompanied by a male chaperone. There are many reasons for this, but the most important is that the streets are not safe for women.
