Why Loiter?: Women and Risk on Mumbai Streets

by Shilpa Phadke

can we now claim the right to other kinds of pleasure? The pleasure of sitting on an unbroken park bench, reading a book or eating a banana (why not a banana?). The pleasure of walking the streets at night without anxiously looking over our shoulders. The pleasure of not having to change clothes in a car because your family thinks they are immodest. The pleasure of not having to hide when you enter your building at 2 a.m. in the morning for fear of what the neighbours will say. The pleasure of using a clean well-lit toilet at 4 a.m. in the morning on a public street without worrying that none will be open. This kind of pleasure can only come from the right to take risks without the fear of loss of reputation as good girls.