Aga Ahmed Hussain Week 6

Shilpa Ranade, Sameera Khan and Shilpa Phadke in their article, “Why loiter? Radical Possibilities for Gendered Dissent”, talk about loitering and it’s implication on gender. They talk about the city of Mumbai and how loitering by women is viewed. The city and its people have developed and modernized over time, but women still have to face a society applied restriction when it comes to accessing public spaces. We see a that an intersectional judgement has come into existence when it comes to loitering. The class and gender of the person loitering is judged. The article talks about a ‘Dangerous other’, which in the case of Mumbai are ‘Taporis’ who are men of lower classes, with a unique sense of dressing and the way they carry themselves. These men have been identified as the threat that makes public spaces unsafe for women; if a woman is seen accessing public spaces, ignoring this threat, her character is deemed as questionable. The authors bring to our notice that boycott of public spaces is less of a choice and more a compulsion put on women, especially women who are of a higher social stratum. Accessing public spaces should a right and not a privilege for women. Men can loiter without a question but even can’t even have access to these spaces. Denying women basic access to public spaces is down right discrimination.