Navigating public areas in Indian cities is an on a regular basis battle for girls. Ask Indu Antony, a 41-year-old feminist multidisciplinary artist based mostly out of Bengaluru, dedicated to working with native communities and creating areas for inventive expression and empowerment.
Chatting with The Higher India, Indu says, “Most ladies I do know have skilled some type of sexual harassment in public areas. Rising up, I bear in mind my mom giving me a security pin, saying that if someone touches me on the bus, I can simply push the pin again on them.”
“We have been at all times requested by our households to take precautions and equip ourselves with instruments that would assist us navigate a public house. This was simply a part of current,” provides the doctor-turned-artist.
However there was one explicit incident about seven years again that left an indelible mark on her psyche. This incident would encourage her to create one in every of her standout artwork initiatives — Cecelia’ed.
“I used to be strolling on the road in HBR Structure when a few boys walked as much as me and spat on my face. I had no thought why they did that. I needed to go house and wash my face and T-shirt, which have been lined of their spit. It was a scary expertise. Rising up, I’ve encountered so many incidents of males touching and groping me in public however that incident was so out of the way in which. I simply didn’t perceive why somebody would spit on me for no obvious motive,” she recollects.
For a quick interval, Indu tried to rationalise what had occurred to her. However over time, she realised that she needed to cease reasoning with it and are available to phrases with the truth that this was not okay. She needed to do one thing about it.
“What I got here to grasp is that I’ve the privilege, consciousness, schooling, entry to social media, and data of a number of South Indian languages to speak extra successfully about what occurred to me. That’s when the idea of a public artwork mission to deal with the gender inequities related to accessing public areas first took root,” she recollects.
Referred to as Cecelia’ed, the mission was centred round Cecelia, a flamboyant single woman in her 70s. “I met Cecelia, a neighborhood celeb, in her 70s [sometime around 2017-18] whereas she was biking with a cape on. She was biking throughout Malleshwaram and I noticed her cape flying within the wind. her, I used to be like ‘Who is that this particular person and I must know her’,” recollects Indu.
Reclaiming public areas
Established in 2018, “Cecelia’ed is a public artwork mission that appears at disrupting normative notions of gender in public areas by working with neighbourhood areas marked ‘unsafe’ for girls in Bengaluru utilizing the politics of herd mentality and celeb tradition. Cecelia, the face of the mission, was introduced as a superhero known as ‘The Gender Disruptor’. The mission acquired the Public Artwork Grant to grasp it by FICA (Basis for Indian Modern Artwork),” she says.
“We started this mission in a single neighbourhood as a result of we wished to start out from the bottom up and perceive points and conversations taking place there, after which transfer on to different elements of town. Our first intervention was in Ward No 24 close to the HBR Structure. We collected a number of info by information, and labored carefully with the native police station and gathered knowledge from them concerning the areas the place a number of assaults towards girls occurred,” she provides.
To raised perceive areas the place girls have been getting attacked, Indu engaged within the examine of feminist geography, which seeks to grasp how city planning is patriarchal in nature.
“For instance, in the event you truly exit into sure elements of town, you will note a barber store proper subsequent to a {hardware} store, a motorbike mechanic store, and a paint store with a neighborhood bar within the neighborhood. Given the gendered nature of those areas, we noticed that girls would look to keep away from them whereas attempting to get to a bus cease. However [at the same time] these have been the areas the place we learn reviews of assaults taking place towards girls within the space,” she explains.
The subsequent step was to grasp how herd mentality might be employed to boost consciousness about not simply her mission but additionally find out how to make these areas safer for girls.
“One of many issues that occurs in each ward is conferences organised by native items of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). These are open conferences that occur with a neighborhood corporator current. We wished native girls to actively take part as residents,” she explains.
Working alongside native printers and artists, Indu designed pamphlets that may go into the morning newspapers of native residents. The pamphlet contained details about the Cecelia’ed mission and the notice they have been attempting to create. In addition they began a neighborhood information channel, which performed in several areas just like the native barber store, discussing the occasions happening within the space with anecdotes from the ladies taking part on this mission.
The mission’s engagement was primarily with girls from the Anganwadi areas. “I used to be in a position to speak to extra grassroots [working class] girls and perceive what was happening with them and what have been the problems they have been going through. The youthful girls have been afraid of getting sexually attacked, after which the older girls have been extra afraid of getting robbed of their belongings. Both approach, it was an enormous burden to hold [for them],” she provides.
To additional have interaction with these girls, the mission started organising workshops on the native Anganwadis each second Saturday of the month.
“Posters for these workshops have been created by the ladies coming to those Anganwadis. We have been attempting to grasp what the problems have been. For instance, they’d discuss a selected avenue with completely no LED lights and whether or not we may get some avenue lights put there so it makes them somewhat extra comfy to stroll on these streets,” she says.
“We’d then write out a petition, go to the BBMP conferences, give it to the corporator, after which get these avenue lights truly put up in these unsafe areas,” she provides.
Moreover engagements like these, Indu and her band of volunteers additionally began initiatives like ‘Open Bar Nights’ as a part of the mission. For a lady in Bengaluru to have a drink, she must go to a membership or pub and purchase costly alcohol. However these ‘shady’ bars with grill bars on the skin serving low cost liquor weren’t accessible as a result of girls by no means felt protected there.
“We would choose a bar and take girls there to have a drink. We have been at all times confronted with a number of resistance by the lads current there, however that gave us sufficient avenues to have conversations with them about why they have been resisting our presence in these areas,” she recollects.
Inducing celeb tradition to reclaim public areas
An vital component of reclaiming these public areas for girls was by inducing celeb tradition, they usually had the right candidate to steer the cost.
In a 2022 TEDx Speak, Indu recalled, “In Cecelia’s case, she was already a celeb. She had this eclectic sense of trend. She would decide up garments from the road wherever she may and she or he would put it collectively and publish these pictures [online]. She is a single girl, lives alone, and has land sharks attempting to hurt her for the land the place her house stood.”
As said earlier, Indu and her band of volunteers had acquired info from the native police station concerning the areas the place a number of girls acquired attacked. These areas grew to become websites of what they’d name ‘Avenue Reopenings’. The road was technically open however they’d ‘reopen’ them with a lot fanfare and conversations about safer public areas.
There have been invites despatched out for these reopenings. Cecelia would arrive there in a flowery automotive and stand on the rostrum alongside the native corporator, Anganwadi academics, and a neighborhood celeb, and they might talk about security in public areas.
“We’d then lower a ribbon re-inaugurating the road hoping that we received’t have any additional points on the road. We did fairly a couple of of those interventions in several elements of the ward. These weren’t closed capabilities. As an alternative, they have been taking place proper on the road. So, a number of curious passersby would stroll in asking what is occurring right here. We’d then have individuals explaining to them what is occurring right here,” she recalled within the TEDx Speak.
“Plenty of areas the place girls felt unsafe had avenue lights that have been damaged. The lads would get drunk, throw a stone, and break the road gentle. Throughout the avenue reopening capabilities, we’d get someone from BESCOM to climb up and alter the bulbs amidst claps and cheers. All of the areas the place we did our reopenings have been marked on Google Maps,” she provides.
One other factor they did was develop merchandise. Cecelia, a beedi smoker, had matchboxes made for her along with her determine on the duvet. In addition they made stickers and tiny dolls along with her determine on them. “We additionally created a comic book strip known as ‘The Gender Disruptor’, and took this comedian to varsities the place we raised consciousness on equal entry to public areas for girls,” she says.
Sadly, the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down the progress of the Cecelia’ed mission with life transferring indoors. When the pandemic occurred, a number of the violence that was on the road got here indoors. Instances of home violence in India and all over the world spiked tremendously. In response, Indu felt that there must be protected areas the place girls can relaxation and simply be. This gave start to the creation of a protected house known as ‘Namma Katte’ in February 2022.
Namma Katte: The place girls can simply be
“Rising up, I would not have any reminiscence of girls resting in public areas. I’d see males sit and have a smoke or simply get collectively and chill outdoors. However I by no means see girls do this in public areas like beneath a tree or close to the radio station. It was at all times indoors for them. This type of public existence [in open spaces] was not there, and I wished to vary that. So, Namma Katte was an open public house we created in order that the following era of youngsters rising up may see girls resting in public areas as a typical prevalence,” explains Indu.
“As a toddler, I additionally observed that girls have been at all times requested to do one thing at house — ‘wash this’, ‘cook dinner this’, ‘make this’, ‘do your homework’, and so on. As a lady, you’re always pressured to be productive within the family, whereas I’ve seen my cousin brothers come house and do nothing. But when I have been to come back again house and do nothing, members of the family would say, ‘No, you go end washing this or do that or that’. This bothered me and I began asking a number of girls round who additionally resonated with my emotions on the topic,” she provides.
Indu at all times wished to have areas for girls the place they really feel protected and might sit and do nothing. On 28 February 2022, she inaugurated Namma Katte, which in Kannada roughly interprets to ‘Our House’. Positioned in one of many largest slums within the metropolis behind the Banaswadi Railway station, “this can be a house for girls to sit down, scream, dance, scratch, and do nothing”, open between 10 am and 6 pm day by day. “It’s only a house for them to exist,” notes Indu.
“Plenty of the ladies who come to Namma Katte work as home assist in Cooke City and different extra upscale localities. After their shift, they arrive right here to relaxation, sit there, and speak to different girls about their day, their issues at house, and about no matter else they need. This house comprises a shutter store the place you simply open and be in that house,” says Indu.
“At first, we acquired the native girls to sew their tales that they couldn’t inform their close to and expensive ones on items of fabric,” she provides. One other vital characteristic of this house is a swing.
“As kids, we don’t have this concept of seeing girls resting. The first thought was to create a public house the place girls may relaxation, simply sit round, and use the swing. It was vital for us to convey again the swing for grownup girls. As kids, your mom would maintain you and carry out back-and-forth actions, which made you calmer. Swings, I imagine, emulate that back-and-forth motion, thus making it an ideal house for individuals to loosen up,” she says.
Regardless of attempting to create this oasis for girls within the slum, the struggle to reclaim this house is fixed, whether or not it’s coping with drunk males or younger boys taking part in cellular video games like PubG.
“I realised early on that aggression just isn’t going to assist. Personally, if it involves a struggle or flight state of affairs, I’m a really fight-oriented particular person, however I realise in this type of state of affairs that may by no means work. So, I’d go and sit very shut to those males even when they’re very drunk. I’d go sit subsequent to them and that may make them uncomfortable. They might begin transferring away whereas I’m additionally serving to them perceive why we’ve got created these areas. In actual fact, I’d additionally conform to get a drink, go to those ‘shady’ bars, sit and speak to them,” she says.
“For the longest time, they noticed me as this ‘simple girl’ however I held my floor. Wanting on the greys (hair) on my head, these males had problem putting me. They might ask me, ‘What are you doing right here?’, ‘Are you beginning a tailoring store right here?’, and so on. They have been additionally not comfy with the thought of an area the place girls would do nothing. I’ve had many males strategy me saying, ‘Ask my spouse to go house as a result of there’s a number of work that must be accomplished’. My response can be ‘You’ll be able to ask your spouse immediately’. I at all times encourage dialog,” she provides.
Nonetheless, up to now month and a half since Indu left for Europe to attend a sequence of occasions and conferences, some building work has begun within the space and the lads have began to crowd out the ladies there, particularly the tree that stands subsequent to the shutter store. Furthermore, the woman caring for the house in Indu’s absence started enduring some issues at house.
“The problem is navigating the gender energy dynamics in that space. Namma Katte is situated in one of many largest slums within the metropolis and it’s not simple to run an area like that for girls. As soon as I come again, I’m planning to introduce some adjustments, together with portray elements of the realm and placing up indicators there that in the event you’re a lady you’ll be able to sit right here, and so on. We’ll see how these adjustments will work. I would like the native girls to take over the house, take possession, and take care of it,” she says.
(Edited by Pranita Bhat; Photographs courtesy Instagram/Indu Antony, Instagram/Namma Katte, Instagram/Cecilia’Ed)
