Mindset Change Needed for Indian Women to be Safe in Public Spaces | Mausumi Mukherjee

Until very recently, it had been an universally-accepted mandate of the traditional patriarchal society that women, of all age groups and from all strata of society, should remain essentially confined to their private domestic spaces while the vast public domain remains perpetually open for the menfolk. It was argued that the public space was not safe for women to venture out into, as they were by nature physiologically and intellectually weaker than their male counterparts.

Breaking away from the shackles of social taboos, women, slowly but surely, came out of the socially-determined domestic boundaries to share crucial, if not equal, space in the public domain. Their presence, in increasing numbers, has been significantly noticed in schools, colleges, offices, governments, professions, churches and markets where they have successfully vied with the men to secure their positions. However, as long as they had been kept confined within the four walls of their private homes, the issue of ensuring their safety in public places had not assumed significant proportions. This ‘safety for women’ is hypothetical in the private sphere though, despite claims to the contrary, they were often subject to diverse forms of domestic abuse. The apparent liberal society, yet inherently patriarchal in nature, now began to engage itself in an excited pastime of formulation of rules and regulations to protect women from male abuse in public spaces – an ostensible display of fervent concern to insure women’s dignity. This zealous enterprise became a common feature, cutting across all societies in the world. More laws are not needed really, it is a change of mindset that is essential.

INDIA KEPT WOMEN insulated from the outside world for centuries, even though Vedic texts ascribed quite high positions to women in the social hierarchy. Despite generational claims of ancient heritage, women’s emancipation was rarely practised in reality. Women, defying social conventions and forfeiting the so-called convenience of a sheltered private life, started joining the public space en masse when the movement for freedom from colonial rule began. The gusty winds of feminist resurgence rocked India’s conservative social structure, challenging the age-old patriarchal idioms. This generated immediate concern among the bandwagons of traditional culture, who declared that women, now suddenly exposed to open public gaze, needed protection and shelter from lewd eyes. Considered naive and unused to the complexities of the external world, women were presumed to be in need of protective armours to immune them from unforeseen perils. This led to a hurried skirmish to formulate allegedly ‘protective’ rules and laws.

During the British rule, mainly on the insistence of powerful social reformers like Raja Rammohan Roy, Iswarchandra Vidyasagar and others, some laws were enacted including Bengal Sati Regulation (1829), Hindu Widows’ Remarriage Ac t(1856), Female Infanticide Prevention Act (1870), Age of Consent Act(1891) etc. to protect the women from persistent societal abuse and violence. They did have some impact on the prevailing social structure by providing some relief to the despicable plight of Hindu women, but did not alter the basic paradigms of the existent patriarchy. Women continued to remain meekly subservient to their male counterparts, without any voice to assert their individual identities.

In independent India, the legal initiatives came mostly from governments, even though the clamour for reforms came from the NGOs and feminist groups as well. These protective regulations were required without any doubt, but it was not as if there were enough regulations in place already to shield women from the abuses which they regularly had to cope with ven at home(that was supposed to be a safe haven for them).

True, independence brought in its wake renewed efforts to enhance women’s rights and security. The Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of State Policy enshrined in the Indian Constitution ensured equality of status and opportunity for both sexes and prevented any discrimination on grounds of one’s sexual identity.

The Hindu Succession Act (1956),The Dowry Prohibition Act(1962), The Maternity Benefit Act(1961), The Indecent Representation of Women(Prohibition) Act(1986), The National Commission for Women Act(1990) were some of the legislations enacted in the last hundred years to ensure women’s safety and security. The infamous Bhanwari Devi incident where Bhanwari, a female social worker from Rajasthan, was gang raped in 1992 for trying to prevent a child-marriage in the family, and the subsequent acquittal of the accused, created a national and international uproar. It led to the filing of a PIL in Supreme Court in 1997 by women activist Naina Kapur and her organisation Sakshi, against the Central government and the State of Rajasthan. This resulted in the drafting of the Vishaka guidelines to prevent sexual harassment of women in the workplace. However, despite these measures, incidents of violence against women still continued unabated. A study made by International Clinical Epidemiologists Network(INCLEN), in 2000, concluded that more than 40 per cent of women in India reported at least one instance of violence against her.[INCLEN, 2000.Domestic Violence in India 3:A Summary Report of a Multi-site Household Survey. Washington, DC: International Centre for Development and Population Activities].
At the dawn of the new century, with the spread of globalisation and with unprecedented advancement of information and communication facilities, the entry of women in the public space also witnessed quantum leaps, both globally and nationally. This, coupled with the paucity of protective measures to ensure women a reasonably safe workspace, it became imperative for the society to evolve more regulations to ensure safety. Consequently, several new measures were adopted to usher in women security. These included The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005; The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006; and the ultimate replacement of the Vishaka guidelines by the enactment of The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act,2013 among others. These regulations were aimed at safeguarding women from discrimination and violence while fostering gender equality. However, these have not proved to be enough to attain the desired objectives expressly due to lack of public awareness, weak enforcement mechanisms, and prevalent societal and cultural norms, still patriarchal in practice.

There are instances galore of sexual harassment in every possible form-verbal (vulgar comments, cancelling, sexist remarks, body shaming); non-verbal (staring, leering, following, stalking, obscene gestures); physical (groping, pinching, unwanted touching) as well as in all possible places – offices, streets, clubs, restaurants, parks, transports etc ,severely jeopardising the overall well-being and mobility of the fairer sex. It is only very recently that the leading national dailies reported that in the 2025 Mahakumbh Mela in Prayagraj, the Uttar Pradesh police have booked 75 social media accounts for posting ‘objectionable pictures’ of women bathing and changing clothes in Kumbh and even trying to auction them online (Official Statement issued to Press by Rajesh Dwivedi, SSP in charge of the Kumbh Mela area on 21 February 2025).

Apart from these instances of indecent behaviours, the incidents of extreme sort of sexual exploitation in the form of rape – individual as well as gangrape – and even murder, are far from rare occurrences. The Nirbhaya Case of 2012, where a young physiotherapy intern in a private bus in New Delhi was brutally raped and murdered, evoked huge countrywide public protest, bringing to the forefront, the futility of all legislations to secure the safety of a woman in public space. The mass uproar resulted in a death penalty of four out of the six offenders, but this failed to substantially change the situation for women even years after the incident.

In a survey, ‘Women on the Move’ conducted by Youth Ki Aawaz and The Observer Research Foundation in 2020 with participation from 4,262 women across 140 Indian cities, 56 per cent of urban Indian women stated that they were sexually harassed in public transport, and yet only 2 per cent reported it; and of the 56 per cent , 33 per cent did not find it safe to take action, 26 per cent chose to ignore it, and 6 per cent sought help from other passengers. This reveals an abysmally poor trust of the women in the capacity of the authorities to address the issues with a strong hand.

The recent R.G.Kar incident where a young post-graduate trainee doctor was horribly raped and murdered inside the College premises of a reputed government city hospital in Kolkata, once again exposed the absolute failure of the governance mechanism to ensure gender safety ,even at the workplace. The incident generated unprecedented public outrage, not only in the State but also, nationally and globally. Notwithstanding the motives of the crime, questions were raised against the absolute lack of security measures for female doctors at their workplace. The lack of proper on-duty rooms and washrooms for lady doctors, the absence of CCTV surveillance at vantage points, the scarcity of adequate security personnel and night patrols, evidently pointed towards an apathy of the authorities to genuinely address the issue of women’s security, even at their places of employment.

All these prove beyond doubt that in India, the security of women in public spaces is still a distant cry. The reasons, also, are not too far to seek. They include,(i)lack of concern among authorities to set the clock right;(ii)lack of adequate legislation;(iii) poor implementation of prescribed rules;(iv) lack of awareness even among the women about their rights and the laws already in place;(v) widespread corruption among the custodians of justice and law;(vi)political powerplay to shield the perpetrators to crime; and above all,(vii) the unabated continuation of the hackneyed mindset among the masses that the public space is not for the women, who, for their own safety and dignity, should stay indoors.

Thus, any comprehensive attempt to truly bring about a change in the existent situation would call for a resolution of all the aforesaid factors. The government and the civil society, in unison, must display an honest intention to usher in gender equality. The various women’s activists, organisations and groups, operating in Indian society, must play a pioneering role in this regard. In India, the civil society has habitually lagged behind the polity in addressing socio-political issues, mostly due to centuries of colonial rule which prevented healthy growth of democratic institutions, as the British masters used India in their own commercial interest ,and had no stake in nation-building. It has been only lately that the civil society is gradually awakening from its slumber and posing a democratic resilience to any unjust policy decision adopted by the political structure. The recent RG Kar incident, which resulted in an unprecedented citizen upsurge against alleged state negligence and even involvement in the rape and murder, is just one small instance of what is really needed for any change.

Laws should be made and implemented in right earnest to prevent any attempt towards sexual harassment in public spaces, be it in open or closed quarters .The wrongdoers must be promptly identified and penalised and the judiciary should act as the custodian of gender equality. The role of the Supreme Court as the champion of women’s rights, assumes critical importance in this respect. The delaying tactics of the court to dispense justice and pronounce verdict, should be abandoned at the earliest. Political patronage should not be indiscriminately distributed for personal favours and gains to shield offenders who violate gender norms. All citizens must be made aware of the laws in place to ensure the safety and security of the fairer sex.

What remains most crucial is the fact, that whole-hearted attempts ought to be made to alter the still predominant mentality of the common men that, the women are best secure in the boundaries of their homes instead of loitering about in the public spaces. The equality of the two sexes has to be ingrained in their minds, and it has to be impressed upon all – that, women have as much claim to the public space as their male counterparts. The removal of these well- entrenched idioms of patriarchy is not an easy task and would still require a combined three-pronged strategy of universal education, thorough morality reform, and a genuine empathy to deal with the issue. Only then will it be possible to build an egalitarian society free from sexual discrimination and gender inequality. Until then, the spectre of stark gender inequality will continue to haunt the Indian public space and prevent women from asserting their independent identity in a free and fair democratic polity.

(Author: Mausumi Mukherjee, Associate Professor, Political Science, Gokhale Memorial Girls’ College, Kolkata. email: mausumi.mukherjee410[at]gmail.com)