How safe is my alley?
When you consider the safety factor in a city, there are two things you look at – its reputation and its reality. The problem with Bombay, I think, is that it has become hostage to the ‘safe city’ badge it has brandished all these years. So every time a woman’s modesty is outraged, there is an immediate furor to do some damage control of its image, and not necessarily the situation. A few weeks back, the Mumbai Mirror carried an article about a woman who got roughed up near Vikhroli station. Some residents were interviewed. All of them severely criticized the perpetrators for ‘ spoiling the reputation of the city. ’ The two constables who apprehended the molesters stoutly claimed that ‘ Mumbai is still safe for women. ’ Interestingly, this kind of vouchsafing is more disturbing than comforting. At some level, I think, there’s a belief that rape is the most shameful way to indignify a woman. Anything short of that, such as pinching bottoms, groping, touching breasts, bumping ‘accidental...