Why Loiter?: Women and Risk on Mumbai Streets

by Shilpa Phadke

This tunnel vision of the city is unfriendly to women at multiple levels. For one, zoning spaces on the basis of use into residential and commercial areas is detrimental to women’s mobility. Our research shows that women have more access to public space in mixed-use areas, where shops and business establishments are open late into the night, ensuring activity at all times. Second, vertical development often means a detachment from the ground. In comparison to low-rise horizontal urban forms, the public spaces of a vertical city are less friendly and safe, particularly for women.65 And third, when public space falls off the agenda in planning, what is left becomes increasing privatized, policed and often fraught with risk.