Ladies Compartment
The Myth About Mumbai’s Gender Segregated Spaces
Mumbai is considered India’s safest city for women. All public transport facilities include spaces allocated for women only. Mumbai trains have 2 coaches reserved for women only. Buses have a two-seater bench for women only. And the recent addition to public infrastructure, the Mumbai metro has recently announced a separate coach for women only.
Less than a month since its introduction, the resentful murmuring has already begun. I heard a friend complain about women who were travelling in what he called the ‘men’s coaches’ since there were designated spaces for them, already. This is something every female train traveller hears often.
Today, I took the metro and spotted this message emblazoned across the seperating tape.
“We know you are special, so an exclusive zone for you. Ladies Only.”
I’d like to say thank you to the Mumbai Metro for putting this up. It highlights the problem and makes it easier for me to explain.
The point is not that women are special. We do not believe we are. How can we, when the whole world, starting from family, to classmates, to fellow commuters, to strangers on the road, to colleagues let us know that we are not? Being subjected to 24×7 scrutiny and moral judgement does not make us ‘special’, it makes us prisoners.
What is worse is that this differentiated treatment is neither our fault nor under our control. I have refused the ‘ladies’ seat’ on buses several times. I have waived ‘special rights’ offered to women in lines. Only to be told every single time that I am imposing and intruding into men’s territory. Whether it is a physical boundary or a mental one, gender seggregation does not come from women. It is a restriction imposed on us, under threat of moral censure and physical danger, if violated.
The common myth is that trains are divided into ‘ladies compartments’ and ‘gents compartments’. No, they are not. Mumbai trains have a ladies compartment among several ‘general compartments’. Buses have ‘ladies seats’ among general seating.
To come back to the accusations of life being easier for women because of these gender-seggregated spaces, and that hated label of ‘special for women’ — why should I feel bad about an inelegant solution offered by society to my sex because of the crimes of your sex?
I would also like to point out that the city is not really safer because of these gender seggregated spaces. Women have been attacked and pushed off these very trains. Every single woman who travels by buses has a story of being rubbed up against and even groped by bus conductors and fellow passengers. Anyone who has traveled regularly by the ladies compartment in trains will know not to stand next to the separating grill, since intrusive hands and fingers come groping through them. Last year’s gangrape at Raghuvanshi Mills and the almost daily reportage of horrific rapes, acid attacks and crimes against women in this city should dispel any notions of how ‘safe’ Mumbai is for women.
Gender-seggregated spaces do not exist because women are special or consider ourselves so. They exist because certain MALE miscreants consider themselves special and deny us access to a safe, respectful space. Can we please stop acting as if it is a privilege extended to women and see it for what it is — a consolation prize instead of the actual human right to safety?
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My posts about the city’s metro system:
Would you still be in agreement of such an arrangement if they were reserved compartments for whites in western cities where minorities/people of color are statistically more likely to commit violent crimes?
I hope not. To say “certain MALE miscreants” is not any different from saying “certain colored people” and using that as justification for segregation is a presumption of guilt and the maligning of an entire group. Far from a privilege it is an absolute disgrace and all free thinking women should rise up in arms with the men of Mumbai and Occupy these segregated spaces. Women especially ought to care more, if they are serious about equality. By condoning the segregation you perpetuate the status quo. These coaches aren’t any different from asking women to wear the Burqa in order to avoid sexual harassment.
Male deviance in the city and most parts of this country is a sad fact due mainly due to the male:female ratio.Notice the beaches in brazil and the woman in bikinis . No one even glances much at them and the woman are comfortable with the glancing stares. And males do not have fixated stares like here in india .
@sam: I doubt it’s entirely because of the male-female ratio. But I do think that the skewed gender ratio and this deviant behaviour rise from the same source – an imbalanced dominance of the male sex and disproportionate hostility towards the female sex.
@ideasmith you are right. The male miscreants are the lowest of the 1% of the population ,who have lost that self control and i do not think they feel special about the lack of control. The daily reportage by reporters who gets the worst 1% cases from the local police stations just aggravate the situation.B grade movies and the wrong peers make these males lose control more easily.
An alpha male will send sexual cues with his eyes that will make a woman blush or set up and take notice of him.sadly this hard wired trait has too few woman for take care of themselves and who have great dress sense and too many unwanted males.
Your posts really makes people think hard about human behavior. It has given me great insight into my “deviant staring” behavior and of other males :).