Who's afraid of women loitering?

In 2010 when 24year old Devina Kapoor came to Mumbai from Sitapur a littleknown town near Lucknow she was elated at the newfound freedom the city offered The production officer at the NationalCentre for the Performing Arts travelled from Borivli to Churchgate every day and says she cherished the independenceDevina Kapoor Neha Singh and their friends who formed a Why Loiter gang in April loiter in public spaces around MumbaildquoBut I never saw the city on my own because I didnrsquot have the couragerdquo she remembersLast year Kapoor read the book Why Loiter Women and Risk on Mumbairsquos Streets by Shilpa Phadke Sameera Khan and Shilpa RanadeIt was epiphanic ldquoEverything about being a woman and the limited access to public spaces we have to the way we strategise our movements in public spaces mdash every woman feels it but doesnrsquot alwaysvocalise it and there it was all all written down in the bookrdquo she saysThis is why they loiter On Wednesday Kapoor her friend Neha Singh and the three authors of the book launched the WhyLoiter campaign wherein they invite women to choose a public place of their choice loiter and share a photograph of them doing so with the hashtag whyloiter on social mediaPhadke says between 2011 when the book was released and now there is a greater public debate on women and the city especially since the December 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder ldquoHowever much of it continues to be focused on the violence that awaits women in public space and the approach is one of protectionism which we find basically both flawed and inadequaterdquo explains RanadeIncreasingly she adds women particularly the younger lot and people of marginalised genders have become more aware than ever not just of violence but of the restrictions we face in accessing public spaceldquoThis campaign is a response to the kind of victimblaming we have seen over and again and most recently in the Uber case in the shrill voices that looked askance at the act of daring to fall asleep in a cabrdquo she elaboratesKapoor became a part of the campaign in her own notsosmall way this April Deeply spurred by the bookrsquos idea she created a WhatsApp group explaining the concept of lsquoloiteringrsquo to her friends and soon at least 55 of them began loitering around the cityrsquos public spaces mdash chatting in parks reading on promenades out on the streetsldquoWe do it in groups around the cityWomen donrsquot go out because it is unsafe but our idea is mdash the more out there you are the safer our public spaces will berdquo says KapoorPhadke explains that the campaign is directed toward anyone who wishes to endorse the right of all marginal people to public spaceldquoWe focus on women and other marginal genders but also welcome men to participaterdquo she saysClaiming the right to cityThe campaign argues that what women have a right to the city a right to take risks in the city ldquoThis doesnrsquot necessarily mean that we will never be attacked for even our homes are not safe but that if we are attacked our right to be in that place will be unquestionedWhat we must claim is the right to the cityThis of course does not mean that city administrations are not responsible for providing public transport public toilets lighting public parks and we must lobby for these to be provided We shouldnot be forced to take risks because of inadequate infrastructurerdquo explains PhadkeKapoor who has been loitering since April says the experiences are bittersweetThe ideal reaction was that of her father who after being aghast that his young daughter was out on the streets even late at night as part of the campaign supported her after understanding the concept and announced it on the Why Loiter blog ldquoOn other days we have tried to photograph a man who was masturbating in front of us on a Juhu street he fled and another time a man tried to hail an autorickshaw for us because ldquowomen from good families shouldnrsquot loiterrdquordquo says Kapoor with a smileTo participate in the campaign log on to wwwfacebookcomwhyloiter