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Why Loiter?: Women And Risk On Mumbai Streets
Presenting an original take on women’s safety in the cities of twenty-first century India, Why Loiter? maps the exclusions and negotiations that women from different classes and communities encounter in the nation’s urban public spaces.
Basing this book on more than three years of research in Mumbai, Shilpa Phadke, Sameera Khan and Shilpa Ranade argue that though women’s access to urban public space has increased, they still do not have an equal claim to public space in the city. And they raise the question: can women’s access to public space be viewed in isolation from that of other marginal groups?
Going beyond the problem of the real and implied risks associated with women’s presence in public, they draw from feminist theory to argue that only by celebrating loitering—a radical act for most Indian women—can a truly equal, global city be created.
Basing this book on more than three years of research in Mumbai, Shilpa Phadke, Sameera Khan and Shilpa Ranade argue that though women’s access to urban public space has increased, they still do not have an equal claim to public space in the city. And they raise the question: can women’s access to public space be viewed in isolation from that of other marginal groups?
Going beyond the problem of the real and implied risks associated with women’s presence in public, they draw from feminist theory to argue that only by celebrating loitering—a radical act for most Indian women—can a truly equal, global city be created.
200 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews
February 21, 2012
Just finished this book, I'd bought it because it had been recommended to me by many people and I kept referring to the concept behind the book in conversations. First some technical details - I thought the numerous footnotes at the end of the book (62 pages of them!) made the book a bit tedious to read as I had to read the book with one finger at the back to follow the notes, which then interfered with the writing in the chapter. As a book that is hopefully meant for a non-academic audience, maybe this could be altered.
The book itself is a welcome addition to writing on cities, especially since it looks at urban women and public spaces, bringing in an element of fun through the loitering angle as well. As a lifelong Mumbaikar who lives in the suburbs, travelled to South Bombay for college and works in all parts of the city, the book expressed in print (and also in public) a lot of the strategies you have to use to stay secure in public spaces. You cannot imagine the feeling of belonging and validation as you realise other women also resort to talking on the phone and looking straight ahead while walking on the street, taking up less space on a bus seat or feel more comfortable in a ladies-only train compartment. The section on public toilets and peeing was really well done and deserves more attention in public discussions. As a confessional, the book comes across as completely grounded in the reality of mainly middle-class women at all ends of that specific spectrum, and names familiar places and acts instead of having to read narratives about urban spaces in New York or London.
Having said that, I wish the authors would have focused more on presenting some of the data that they generated in their discussions. I thought the sections that referenced architecture did that better than the others, since they used specific situations and exercises to demonstrate their point. The section on In Search of Pleasure was too general, and appeared to speak for women at a particular class-caste-professional axis while not presenting enough data/examples.
The links and incidents are all contemporary and can easily be recalled and discussed. Like the Vagina Monologues, this is a piece of work with great potential to release the energies that women have to repress. The authors are looking for structural change and not only expressive forms, still this struck me as a book I would want to give my friends.(Girl)friends mostly!
The book itself is a welcome addition to writing on cities, especially since it looks at urban women and public spaces, bringing in an element of fun through the loitering angle as well. As a lifelong Mumbaikar who lives in the suburbs, travelled to South Bombay for college and works in all parts of the city, the book expressed in print (and also in public) a lot of the strategies you have to use to stay secure in public spaces. You cannot imagine the feeling of belonging and validation as you realise other women also resort to talking on the phone and looking straight ahead while walking on the street, taking up less space on a bus seat or feel more comfortable in a ladies-only train compartment. The section on public toilets and peeing was really well done and deserves more attention in public discussions. As a confessional, the book comes across as completely grounded in the reality of mainly middle-class women at all ends of that specific spectrum, and names familiar places and acts instead of having to read narratives about urban spaces in New York or London.
Having said that, I wish the authors would have focused more on presenting some of the data that they generated in their discussions. I thought the sections that referenced architecture did that better than the others, since they used specific situations and exercises to demonstrate their point. The section on In Search of Pleasure was too general, and appeared to speak for women at a particular class-caste-professional axis while not presenting enough data/examples.
The links and incidents are all contemporary and can easily be recalled and discussed. Like the Vagina Monologues, this is a piece of work with great potential to release the energies that women have to repress. The authors are looking for structural change and not only expressive forms, still this struck me as a book I would want to give my friends.(Girl)friends mostly!
September 21, 2018
i’ve never read a book that more encompasses the GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN(DAMENTAL RIGHTS) vibe
November 6, 2016
"Loiter without purpose and meaning. Loiter without being asked what time of the day it is, why we are here, what we are wearing, and whom we are with. That is when we will truly belong to the city and the city to us" (188).
"We believe that it is only by claiming the right to risk that women can truly claim citizenship. To do this we need to redefine our understanding of violence in relation to public space--to see not sexual assault, but the denial of access to public space as the worst possible outcome for women" (viii-ix).
"We also need to recognize another kind of risk--the risk, should women choose not to access public space more than minimally, of loss of opportunity to engage city spaces and the loss of experience of public spaces. It also includes the risk of accepting the gendered status hierarchies of access to public space, and in doing so, reinforcing them" (61).
This book, written by three Indian women about women's public lives in Mumbai, is a call to action. Mumbai is often extolled as the most forward-thinking city in India in terms of women's rights and public access, and was therefore the perfect setting for the authors to show how "the most modern city in India for women" is still not good enough. They argue that the women in Mumbai may appear to be modern and brazen, but they actually operate according to very specific internal and external rules that negotiate how and when and where they may access the city. These rules are created as the result of fear of both physical violence and damage to reputation. Focusing on the safety of women as reason to keep them off the streets, however, harms women in a more subtle but far-reaching way. First, it promotes the idea that a women should be able to keep herself from harm and thus any harm she comes to is the result of her own lack of judgment. Second, it removes responsibility from the city itself to create infrastructure that supports women in public, thus allowing the city to remain a hostile environment. Third, it neglects entirely the right of women to enjoy themselves in public in any way they see fit, to "have fun" as the authors simply put it.
I bought this book in a shop in Mumbai while I was visiting the city. This was my first experience of India. My husband and I were there for his work for two weeks, and I had my days free to explore on my own. I had read all the warnings for solo women travelers in India and I was prepared for stares, catcalls, groping, you name it. What I was unprepared for was the overwhelming number of men on the streets relative to women. As I ventured out on my first day alone, I saw men everywhere; men idling on street corners, men walking in packs, men napping in their rickshaws, men eating at roadside stands, men stepping out of their sidewalk shanties wearing just a towel, men sitting in their shop fronts, men watching passersby. I saw a few women, it's true. There was the wrinkled and skinny old woman in a sari picking through the garbage; there was the matronly woman walking with her child, wearing it's tiny schoolbag on her shoulder; there was a woman who helped me find what I was looking for in the grocery store; there was even a woman about my age in western clothes, heading into a maze of housing alleys that I had just gotten lost in. Surely there were a few women on the streets, but I counted them in individualities instead of types, and I felt as if all the eyes I caught looking at me were male.
In discussing and researching this phenomenon with a friend in my first week, I found a reference to this book, and when I saw it a few days later in a bookstore, I picked it up. I finished reading it on the plane ride home.
As a religious conservative and political liberal, I was both repelled and drawn in by the rhetoric of rebellion. I found that I had to keep reminding myself that it was about India, a very different culture than my own, or I would take issue with the curt dismissal of family and religious values. In my life, the rules I was raised with protected me not from the physical violence of a hostile city, but from the harsh realities of poor choices. The authors' experience of this type of conservatism was drenched in the negativity of victim-blaming and the heavy, one-sided responsibility of family honor. Choice had little to do with it; women's personal freedoms hadn't extended that far.
One other point that I struggled with was the implication that sexual violence is equal to other physical violence. This is never explicitly stated, but neither it is acknowledged that the risk of sexual violence is a more laden risk than the risk of other physical violence. The authors' discussion of risk rests mainly on reputation; men run the risk of violence in the city too, but "for men, an assault is just an assault...their social status will remain unaffected" (59). On the other hand, "even when [women] are not assaulted,...being seen in public space...could adversely affect not just their own reputation, but also that of their families" (59). The book suggests that "choosing to take risks, even of possible sexual violence in public spaces, undermines a sexist structure where women's virtue is prized over their desires or agency" (60). In other words, the greater fear of sexual violence towards women than other physical violence towards men is a relic of antiquated values that value female virginity. I suppose I had always suspected that sexual violence was worse than just being beaten up, not because it deprived me of my virtue, but because it was a deeper more personal violation of my self, my body, and my expression of love in a way that other physical violence never could touch. Perhaps this not true; may I never find out. Perhaps the rights being fought for in this battle for risk are entirely worth the sacrifice. Either way, it is an interesting departure, and one that left me with a strange aftertaste.
The wonderful thing about this book is its frank and practical discussion of urban planning in regards to creating a safe environment for all of the inhabitants of the urban space. The authors had conducted a research study called the Gender and Space project, discussing the ways that disadvantaged demographics (mainly, but not solely women) utilized the city. The research results deviate from urban planning orthodoxy; design for "beautification" often neglects comfort and safety, and measures to keep out "undesirables" often results in blocking access for "desirables" as well. In Mumbai specifically, the streets crowded with sidewalk shanties (design horror!) are busy and lit and filled with the sounds of families at night, making them an instinctively safer path for women walking alone at night than sidewalks leading past clean new buildings whose sleek and modern lines turn forbidding and too quiet in the dark. Simply the existence of well-lit parks with benches and without tall corralling fences and the installation of clean, well-lit, unlocked-at-night female public toilets would go a long way towards making the city "inviting to women and discourag[ing] situations where women get harrassed" (98).
The last section in the book is devoted to a discussion of the ways that different female demographics can pursue pleasure and fun in the city and how the pursuit of fun is a fundamental right. The authors push back on the idea that women "can't ask for more" than the basic survival freedoms they already have, and argue that women aren't truly equal in a society that denies them fun. There are a couple over-simplified moralizing moments, such as stereotyping women who have left careers for motherhood, and there is a (welcome) slackening of the call to Rebellion! when discussing the sensitive (and more valid because they are more Other?) religious beliefs of the Muslim community. Again, I needed to remind myself that the women in India are operating under a different level of protectionism than I ever did, regardless of my conservative religious upbringing. It is not "our intention to romanticize risk itself," the authors argue (61), but they come close when they ask questions such as "Is it possible for good girls to have fun?" and the follow-up: "Is the answer then to be 'bad' girls?" (169-70). I think their point is to highlight the undesirable cultural bias around the labels "good girl" and "bad girl", but there also seems to be direct encouragement to disregard parental strictures as the outdated morals of a clinging and dangerous patriarchy.
This book was a highly engaging and worthwhile read that challenged many of my assumptions, both about the nature of women's rights struggles around the world, and about the value of risk vs. protectionism. I think that the argument of this book ("We believe that it is only by claiming the right to risk that women can truly claim citizenship") would prove unspectacular in America, but I believe that it is a powerful stance in the India of today.
"We believe that it is only by claiming the right to risk that women can truly claim citizenship. To do this we need to redefine our understanding of violence in relation to public space--to see not sexual assault, but the denial of access to public space as the worst possible outcome for women" (viii-ix).
"We also need to recognize another kind of risk--the risk, should women choose not to access public space more than minimally, of loss of opportunity to engage city spaces and the loss of experience of public spaces. It also includes the risk of accepting the gendered status hierarchies of access to public space, and in doing so, reinforcing them" (61).
This book, written by three Indian women about women's public lives in Mumbai, is a call to action. Mumbai is often extolled as the most forward-thinking city in India in terms of women's rights and public access, and was therefore the perfect setting for the authors to show how "the most modern city in India for women" is still not good enough. They argue that the women in Mumbai may appear to be modern and brazen, but they actually operate according to very specific internal and external rules that negotiate how and when and where they may access the city. These rules are created as the result of fear of both physical violence and damage to reputation. Focusing on the safety of women as reason to keep them off the streets, however, harms women in a more subtle but far-reaching way. First, it promotes the idea that a women should be able to keep herself from harm and thus any harm she comes to is the result of her own lack of judgment. Second, it removes responsibility from the city itself to create infrastructure that supports women in public, thus allowing the city to remain a hostile environment. Third, it neglects entirely the right of women to enjoy themselves in public in any way they see fit, to "have fun" as the authors simply put it.
I bought this book in a shop in Mumbai while I was visiting the city. This was my first experience of India. My husband and I were there for his work for two weeks, and I had my days free to explore on my own. I had read all the warnings for solo women travelers in India and I was prepared for stares, catcalls, groping, you name it. What I was unprepared for was the overwhelming number of men on the streets relative to women. As I ventured out on my first day alone, I saw men everywhere; men idling on street corners, men walking in packs, men napping in their rickshaws, men eating at roadside stands, men stepping out of their sidewalk shanties wearing just a towel, men sitting in their shop fronts, men watching passersby. I saw a few women, it's true. There was the wrinkled and skinny old woman in a sari picking through the garbage; there was the matronly woman walking with her child, wearing it's tiny schoolbag on her shoulder; there was a woman who helped me find what I was looking for in the grocery store; there was even a woman about my age in western clothes, heading into a maze of housing alleys that I had just gotten lost in. Surely there were a few women on the streets, but I counted them in individualities instead of types, and I felt as if all the eyes I caught looking at me were male.
In discussing and researching this phenomenon with a friend in my first week, I found a reference to this book, and when I saw it a few days later in a bookstore, I picked it up. I finished reading it on the plane ride home.
As a religious conservative and political liberal, I was both repelled and drawn in by the rhetoric of rebellion. I found that I had to keep reminding myself that it was about India, a very different culture than my own, or I would take issue with the curt dismissal of family and religious values. In my life, the rules I was raised with protected me not from the physical violence of a hostile city, but from the harsh realities of poor choices. The authors' experience of this type of conservatism was drenched in the negativity of victim-blaming and the heavy, one-sided responsibility of family honor. Choice had little to do with it; women's personal freedoms hadn't extended that far.
One other point that I struggled with was the implication that sexual violence is equal to other physical violence. This is never explicitly stated, but neither it is acknowledged that the risk of sexual violence is a more laden risk than the risk of other physical violence. The authors' discussion of risk rests mainly on reputation; men run the risk of violence in the city too, but "for men, an assault is just an assault...their social status will remain unaffected" (59). On the other hand, "even when [women] are not assaulted,...being seen in public space...could adversely affect not just their own reputation, but also that of their families" (59). The book suggests that "choosing to take risks, even of possible sexual violence in public spaces, undermines a sexist structure where women's virtue is prized over their desires or agency" (60). In other words, the greater fear of sexual violence towards women than other physical violence towards men is a relic of antiquated values that value female virginity. I suppose I had always suspected that sexual violence was worse than just being beaten up, not because it deprived me of my virtue, but because it was a deeper more personal violation of my self, my body, and my expression of love in a way that other physical violence never could touch. Perhaps this not true; may I never find out. Perhaps the rights being fought for in this battle for risk are entirely worth the sacrifice. Either way, it is an interesting departure, and one that left me with a strange aftertaste.
The wonderful thing about this book is its frank and practical discussion of urban planning in regards to creating a safe environment for all of the inhabitants of the urban space. The authors had conducted a research study called the Gender and Space project, discussing the ways that disadvantaged demographics (mainly, but not solely women) utilized the city. The research results deviate from urban planning orthodoxy; design for "beautification" often neglects comfort and safety, and measures to keep out "undesirables" often results in blocking access for "desirables" as well. In Mumbai specifically, the streets crowded with sidewalk shanties (design horror!) are busy and lit and filled with the sounds of families at night, making them an instinctively safer path for women walking alone at night than sidewalks leading past clean new buildings whose sleek and modern lines turn forbidding and too quiet in the dark. Simply the existence of well-lit parks with benches and without tall corralling fences and the installation of clean, well-lit, unlocked-at-night female public toilets would go a long way towards making the city "inviting to women and discourag[ing] situations where women get harrassed" (98).
The last section in the book is devoted to a discussion of the ways that different female demographics can pursue pleasure and fun in the city and how the pursuit of fun is a fundamental right. The authors push back on the idea that women "can't ask for more" than the basic survival freedoms they already have, and argue that women aren't truly equal in a society that denies them fun. There are a couple over-simplified moralizing moments, such as stereotyping women who have left careers for motherhood, and there is a (welcome) slackening of the call to Rebellion! when discussing the sensitive (and more valid because they are more Other?) religious beliefs of the Muslim community. Again, I needed to remind myself that the women in India are operating under a different level of protectionism than I ever did, regardless of my conservative religious upbringing. It is not "our intention to romanticize risk itself," the authors argue (61), but they come close when they ask questions such as "Is it possible for good girls to have fun?" and the follow-up: "Is the answer then to be 'bad' girls?" (169-70). I think their point is to highlight the undesirable cultural bias around the labels "good girl" and "bad girl", but there also seems to be direct encouragement to disregard parental strictures as the outdated morals of a clinging and dangerous patriarchy.
This book was a highly engaging and worthwhile read that challenged many of my assumptions, both about the nature of women's rights struggles around the world, and about the value of risk vs. protectionism. I think that the argument of this book ("We believe that it is only by claiming the right to risk that women can truly claim citizenship") would prove unspectacular in America, but I believe that it is a powerful stance in the India of today.
February 1, 2022
This was a wonderful book. I loved how clear and well-cited it was. The argumentation was strong and persuasive and the conclusion inescapable. The politics of security have no internal conclusion and always justify more and more responses in its name. Women are most targeted by both security and risk, losing opportunities to the former and most harmed by the latter.
My sole criticism of the book would be how cursorily it deals with both Dalit and trans women. The book mentions both, but never really explores them the way it does the other identities for women that it constructs. That by itself would be a shame, but even more so because it doesn't acknowledge that it's leaving them out. It also seems to conflate being lesbian with being butch and seems to deal with both at the same time, which made reading that chapter confusing.
My sole criticism of the book would be how cursorily it deals with both Dalit and trans women. The book mentions both, but never really explores them the way it does the other identities for women that it constructs. That by itself would be a shame, but even more so because it doesn't acknowledge that it's leaving them out. It also seems to conflate being lesbian with being butch and seems to deal with both at the same time, which made reading that chapter confusing.
November 16, 2025
Excellent, infuriating, validating book that landed in my lap at the perfect time. Left me feeling determined to be more frivolous. In a patriarchal, capitalist society, the most radical thing a woman can strive for is leisure. The right to relax, the right to equal pleasure, the right to loiter.
June 30, 2025
Girls just (HAVE AN ACTUAL RIGHT AND CLAIM TO ) wanna have fun 🥰🥰
March 19, 2022
Thank you @readwithzainab for recommending this book to me. The question I have though is that since this book was published in 2011, and eleven years later now in 2022, has anything changed for us women and minorities? Not in terms of the right to vote or work, but in terms of the moral policing, the right to be us unapologetically, the right to pleasure or the right to loiter without any purpose or obligation or responsibility?
When I read books like these, I feel worse rather than better. I feel upset and caged in rather than angry and ready to fight for my rights. Maybe it’s the pessimist in me or the coward in me, but I feel like things will never truly change to bring the utopia mentioned in the last chapter in the book. That women and minorities will always have to navigate the rules made by society which influences civil laws as well. No wonder that the wealthy and educated in the country fly away to places where their movements are less restricted than in their own country.
Absolutely loved this book. One of my top rated non fiction read of this year
When I read books like these, I feel worse rather than better. I feel upset and caged in rather than angry and ready to fight for my rights. Maybe it’s the pessimist in me or the coward in me, but I feel like things will never truly change to bring the utopia mentioned in the last chapter in the book. That women and minorities will always have to navigate the rules made by society which influences civil laws as well. No wonder that the wealthy and educated in the country fly away to places where their movements are less restricted than in their own country.
Absolutely loved this book. One of my top rated non fiction read of this year
September 10, 2024
i’m actually quite emotional after finishing this book in the women’s coach of the metro. beside me, two students are complimenting each others makeup while going back and forth with their lunch plans. a mother has picked up her son from school and he’s narrating his classroom debacles as his mom wipes the dirt from his cheek. another mother sits comfortable in one of the corner seats, breastfeeding her baby. from the corner of my eye i can spot a visually disabled man sitting at the front with his wife holding his hand. tired women and girls sit on the metro floor, heads leaning back, hands flipping through phones or novels. this is it. this is the best place to be, to let my guard down, to smile and to rest and to do nothing in public. i know once i step out, the guards will come up and anger and discomfort will cloud the view of the rest of the world for me.
April 10, 2020
Phenomenal!
July 10, 2023
A very bittersweet description of my hometown (city). But a beautiful read that makes you connect and empathize with all the other women you'd come across at work, at home and while being out and about in Mumbai.
September 19, 2024
As a woman whose access to public space in Mumbai has always been questioned for respectability: this book spoke the words my heart has tried and failed to articulate for decades. It reframes the narrative of women (while also offering sharp insights into class, caste, age, religion and able-bodiedness) claiming access to public space from one of protection against violence to one of rights and citizenship. The right to risk, the right to pleasure, the right to joy. The right to be outside not to consume anything material, but maybe just to feel the cool breeze on one's face, no matter the time of day. No matter who you're with. No matter the money in your pocket or the clothes on your back. No matter what's under the clothes on your back.
When we can loiter, and when these questions become entirely banal:
'That is when we will truly belong to the city and the city to us'.
When we can loiter, and when these questions become entirely banal:
'That is when we will truly belong to the city and the city to us'.
July 25, 2022
Very important book of indian feminist literature. The fact that it is set in Mumbai doesn't limit it in anyway. I could relate to the whole book, being an Indian woman who is fortunately not restricted to the kitchen.
Public places were never designed for women in the first place. Women are expected and further ordered to limit their mobility. Asking for free and safe access to public places seems outlandish because it was never meant to be a woman's place. In simple words, I should be grateful that I am allowed to go out; shouldn't complain about it being unsafe.
It talks about how public safety varies based on the community a woman comes from, her financial status, her areas of travel and her attire. It is always on the woman to keep herself safe - why would she go there, what did she wear, who was with her. We are somehow convinced that it is not a public issue and rather a girl's problem.
This book talks about this issue in detail and elucidate how myriad factors like religion, region, status of law and order, purpose of going out and her presumed character decide a woman's safety.
The author explores the issue of public safety from various angles based on past incidents of public unsafe experiences of women. Past crimes make it clear that today there are a very few places left that can be perceived as safe for women. If questioned about this, the police and media would resort to unabashed victim blaming.
I specifically appreciate how the author holds various stakeholders responsible for women's safety in public places rather than putting the burden on women themselves to be careful.
Considering the time we live in, just loitering on the road alone or with a few female friends is a feminist act of revolution. This book explains why and how. The reason this book felt so personal to me apart from relatability is because it is written by women. They would perfectly understand why we check our dress or turn on GPS even to walk a few steps. And the concept of a casual walk or loiter is foreign for us. I'm grateful to the authors for this powerful, demanding and vital work.
Public places were never designed for women in the first place. Women are expected and further ordered to limit their mobility. Asking for free and safe access to public places seems outlandish because it was never meant to be a woman's place. In simple words, I should be grateful that I am allowed to go out; shouldn't complain about it being unsafe.
It talks about how public safety varies based on the community a woman comes from, her financial status, her areas of travel and her attire. It is always on the woman to keep herself safe - why would she go there, what did she wear, who was with her. We are somehow convinced that it is not a public issue and rather a girl's problem.
This book talks about this issue in detail and elucidate how myriad factors like religion, region, status of law and order, purpose of going out and her presumed character decide a woman's safety.
The author explores the issue of public safety from various angles based on past incidents of public unsafe experiences of women. Past crimes make it clear that today there are a very few places left that can be perceived as safe for women. If questioned about this, the police and media would resort to unabashed victim blaming.
I specifically appreciate how the author holds various stakeholders responsible for women's safety in public places rather than putting the burden on women themselves to be careful.
Considering the time we live in, just loitering on the road alone or with a few female friends is a feminist act of revolution. This book explains why and how. The reason this book felt so personal to me apart from relatability is because it is written by women. They would perfectly understand why we check our dress or turn on GPS even to walk a few steps. And the concept of a casual walk or loiter is foreign for us. I'm grateful to the authors for this powerful, demanding and vital work.
November 14, 2021
Why Loiter is an essential read to understand how women navigate public space, the complexities that come with it and the anxiety that entering a public space produces.
The book is based on the findings of a three-year-long research project, The Gender & Space project which focused on women and public space in Mumbai to demonstrate that despite the apparent visibility, even in urban India, women* do not share equal access to public space with men; they have, at best, conditional access to public space one that is granted to us on the basis of how well we are able to demonstrate respectability and purpose.
This conditional access means women cannot loiter—an act that would mean actively 'courting risk' and engaging in the pleasure of doing so—both of which stem from desire and good, respectable women do not pursue desire in public.
By linking the act of loitering to citizenship as the right of an individual, irrespective of their groups affiliations, to take pleasure in the city as an act of claim and belonging, Why Loiter places the responsibility of providing for infrastructure on the state and city administration (like transport, public toilets, street lighting) which will facilitate women to voluntarily court risk and find pleasure.
Ending with "The unconditional claim to public space will only be possible when all women and all men can walk the streets without being compelled to demonstrate purpose or respectability. Women's access to public space is fundamentally linked to the access of all citizens. The litmus test of this right to public space is the right to loiter, especially for women across all classes..."
*Although public discussions of safety might appear to be about all women, they tend to focus implicitly only on middle class women which in the urban Indian context is assumed to be a young, able bodied, cis-het, Hindu, upper caste, married or marriageable woman.
The book is based on the findings of a three-year-long research project, The Gender & Space project which focused on women and public space in Mumbai to demonstrate that despite the apparent visibility, even in urban India, women* do not share equal access to public space with men; they have, at best, conditional access to public space one that is granted to us on the basis of how well we are able to demonstrate respectability and purpose.
This conditional access means women cannot loiter—an act that would mean actively 'courting risk' and engaging in the pleasure of doing so—both of which stem from desire and good, respectable women do not pursue desire in public.
By linking the act of loitering to citizenship as the right of an individual, irrespective of their groups affiliations, to take pleasure in the city as an act of claim and belonging, Why Loiter places the responsibility of providing for infrastructure on the state and city administration (like transport, public toilets, street lighting) which will facilitate women to voluntarily court risk and find pleasure.
Ending with "The unconditional claim to public space will only be possible when all women and all men can walk the streets without being compelled to demonstrate purpose or respectability. Women's access to public space is fundamentally linked to the access of all citizens. The litmus test of this right to public space is the right to loiter, especially for women across all classes..."
*Although public discussions of safety might appear to be about all women, they tend to focus implicitly only on middle class women which in the urban Indian context is assumed to be a young, able bodied, cis-het, Hindu, upper caste, married or marriageable woman.
January 15, 2023
The right to seek pleasure.
I have read about this book, read articles written by the authors, and thought long and hard about the whole issue of women in public spaces. Given that, it is strange that it took me so long to actually read this book.
Anyone who has spent any time in India would have noticed how few women are seen in public without purpose. You see men loitering, drinking chai, playing cricket, gossiping. But women are always going somewhere, or waiting for something to happen. Rarely, if ever, do you see women just hanging around. This books puts that observation within a framework- the conditional access of women to public places as long as they demonstrate they are "good" girls. The book argues that the most important thing for a woman is to repeatedly demonstrate respectability- this allows her to be out in public spaces only under certain strict conditions. While this is ostensibly for her own safety, in reality it is the lack of women in public that makes spaces more unsafe. The fact that the morality of women is questioned even if she is the victim of crime only makes it worse.
The most fascinating part of the book for me was the demarcation of spaces as public or private- so many places we consider pubic are in fact private spaces where the access of those deemed "undesirables" are kept out.
Seeking joy is as important as anything else, and this book makes a feminist argument for rethinking our cities to empower more women to seek joy.
I have read about this book, read articles written by the authors, and thought long and hard about the whole issue of women in public spaces. Given that, it is strange that it took me so long to actually read this book.
Anyone who has spent any time in India would have noticed how few women are seen in public without purpose. You see men loitering, drinking chai, playing cricket, gossiping. But women are always going somewhere, or waiting for something to happen. Rarely, if ever, do you see women just hanging around. This books puts that observation within a framework- the conditional access of women to public places as long as they demonstrate they are "good" girls. The book argues that the most important thing for a woman is to repeatedly demonstrate respectability- this allows her to be out in public spaces only under certain strict conditions. While this is ostensibly for her own safety, in reality it is the lack of women in public that makes spaces more unsafe. The fact that the morality of women is questioned even if she is the victim of crime only makes it worse.
The most fascinating part of the book for me was the demarcation of spaces as public or private- so many places we consider pubic are in fact private spaces where the access of those deemed "undesirables" are kept out.
Seeking joy is as important as anything else, and this book makes a feminist argument for rethinking our cities to empower more women to seek joy.
June 30, 2022
Thought provoking and engaging non-fiction.
July 18, 2014
First book I bought off Amazon. so worth it.
June 29, 2022
There are a few notable ideas that will marinate with existing ideas to synthesise and evolve my thinking.
1. Feminists have been advocating and championing the cause of equal rights to work, opportunity and pay. The book explores the disparity and advocates that women have equal rights to play.
2. Right to risk should be fundamental. A woman exercising her right to risk doesn't absolve or lessen the responsibility of state and police machinery to not provide the best of amenities so that she can use her right. If a woman chooses to loiter on the streets at midnight instead of questioning her right to do so, emphasis should be laid on how to make the street an all-inclusive space at midnight.
3. The right to access public spaces. Women must not visit a certain part of the city at certain times. Because the Muslims, hawkers, Dalits, migrants, and unemployed unwashed stinking men are at large in those places. This narrative pits the oppressed groups against each other and provides an excuse to further police and oppress them.
4. On a personal note, being an ardent supporter of Loitering, the book gives me words to put things into context. Loiter is to be seen as a response to the hyper-consumerist efficient citizen. Loiter is to have fun without a product and a price attached to it. Loiter can provide a space where boundaries of class, religion, ethnicities, and gender are blurred.
5. Women loitering on the streets is an act of protest, breaking set rules and challenging their set position on the city's map. It took me a book to realize and challenge my deep-set belief that a woman roaming around without a purpose or not pretending/strategizing to have a purpose is not a loose woman.
1. Feminists have been advocating and championing the cause of equal rights to work, opportunity and pay. The book explores the disparity and advocates that women have equal rights to play.
2. Right to risk should be fundamental. A woman exercising her right to risk doesn't absolve or lessen the responsibility of state and police machinery to not provide the best of amenities so that she can use her right. If a woman chooses to loiter on the streets at midnight instead of questioning her right to do so, emphasis should be laid on how to make the street an all-inclusive space at midnight.
3. The right to access public spaces. Women must not visit a certain part of the city at certain times. Because the Muslims, hawkers, Dalits, migrants, and unemployed unwashed stinking men are at large in those places. This narrative pits the oppressed groups against each other and provides an excuse to further police and oppress them.
4. On a personal note, being an ardent supporter of Loitering, the book gives me words to put things into context. Loiter is to be seen as a response to the hyper-consumerist efficient citizen. Loiter is to have fun without a product and a price attached to it. Loiter can provide a space where boundaries of class, religion, ethnicities, and gender are blurred.
5. Women loitering on the streets is an act of protest, breaking set rules and challenging their set position on the city's map. It took me a book to realize and challenge my deep-set belief that a woman roaming around without a purpose or not pretending/strategizing to have a purpose is not a loose woman.
December 13, 2021
A thought-provoking read on the different aspects of access to public spaces and pleasure for women (or lack, thereof). Makes one aware of the design aspects, architectural and structural aspects like lighting, layouts, etc for everything from parks to toilets to buildings.
The book is divided into separate sections and the essays in each section explore the topic from various angles and perspectives to bring forth the lack of attention and thought given to women's need to pleasure and fun.
That is takes Mumbai, one of the forward thinking cities when it comes to women's safety, as it's focus city is a bold and calculated step because it exposes the harsh realities that are otherwise almost invisible. The template of Mumbai is applicable to any other city - big or small- and it's true in Mumbai , it is obviously a reflection of how things must be in other cities too.
Since this is a book that truly helps one understand the complexities and challenges of women accessing public space, I really hope city planners and builders are reading it and taking notes to improve the designs of cities and spaces. But more than them, we, general public, too need to read this book to be able to demand what is rightfully ours.
The book is divided into separate sections and the essays in each section explore the topic from various angles and perspectives to bring forth the lack of attention and thought given to women's need to pleasure and fun.
That is takes Mumbai, one of the forward thinking cities when it comes to women's safety, as it's focus city is a bold and calculated step because it exposes the harsh realities that are otherwise almost invisible. The template of Mumbai is applicable to any other city - big or small- and it's true in Mumbai , it is obviously a reflection of how things must be in other cities too.
Since this is a book that truly helps one understand the complexities and challenges of women accessing public space, I really hope city planners and builders are reading it and taking notes to improve the designs of cities and spaces. But more than them, we, general public, too need to read this book to be able to demand what is rightfully ours.
February 28, 2023
A singular book which talks about something that we hardly ever even consider: free access to public space. Though the focus here is access to women, the larger argument is to open up our public spaces to individuals of every gender, caste, class, and religion. I can’t emphasise on how important a read it is, this book should undoubtedly be a part of syllabus for multiple disciplines like architecture, public policy, urban design, and so many more!
January 22, 2025
Radically feminist. Made me pause every few sentences and just marvel at how relevant and important it is to dismantle the current structures pertaining to women’s access to public spaces and to seek an absolute right to pleasure. I had epiphanies about my own female experience in India in ways that I had not thought about before.
“Loiter without purpose and meaning. Loiter without being asked what time of the day it is, why we are here, what we are wearing, and whom we are with.”
“Loiter without purpose and meaning. Loiter without being asked what time of the day it is, why we are here, what we are wearing, and whom we are with.”
January 29, 2022
Read this for an author chat we are going to have today evening at 6.30pm India time. If you're interested to join, send me a DM and I will share the zoom link.
The book is an immersive experience, lucidly explains us why even seemingly safer cities like Mumbai are not exactly safe for loitering for women. The public access available for women is conditional. The book decodes and analyzes what could make cities safer without having to conform to stereotypes.
The book is an immersive experience, lucidly explains us why even seemingly safer cities like Mumbai are not exactly safe for loitering for women. The public access available for women is conditional. The book decodes and analyzes what could make cities safer without having to conform to stereotypes.
September 19, 2023
I read this book for a class titled “worlding sex and gender” and it was really interesting to see how women embody their femininity and the issues that come with being a woman in a public space with no “purpose”. I don’t think I would’ve picked up this book if not assigned in class but it was a good read for assigned reading.
October 16, 2020
So well researched!
Read
November 4, 2024Interesting, a little trite but for people unaware of loitering and its politics a must read. Definitely missing caste
June 28, 2025
My right to take risks :))
June 25, 2022
What a book! A must read for everybody, the girl stuck in the patriarchal curfew hostel times as an adult and the boys who feel feminism and equality is overrated. This should be a compulsary coming of age book everyone has to read when their 20s and start an indipendant life.
November 21, 2021
A thought provoking book.
July 18, 2021
This books was a fantastic read! As someone who has lived in Mumbai for most of her life, I could identify with most of the struggles described by the women in this book. Reading this book angered me greatly, and rightly so - reading this should leave no one complacent. I've never read anything about urban planning, and I felt as if the book detailed the importance of inclusive urban planning in a way that I'd never thought about before.
If there is one thing that I didn't like about this book, it would be how women were boxed into identities in the third section. I could identify with many of the women throughout the book, but in this section I couldn't fully identify with any of the boxes the authors had put women in, and felt as though the descriptions were too limiting. After all, we do shift identities as women quite a bit. I felt like his fact was discussed everywhere else in the book except here, so it doesn't even matter too much.
The last section was perhaps my favourite - a reimagined utopia that should already exist, but is so unimaginable that most of us would never dream of it. I would recommend this book for anyone who wants to gain more excellently articulated insight into how women in seemingly progressive metropolitan cities live their lives, and why we desperately need feminism even when on paper women avail the same freedoms as men (which, if you read you will understand why that is a myth :P)
If there is one thing that I didn't like about this book, it would be how women were boxed into identities in the third section. I could identify with many of the women throughout the book, but in this section I couldn't fully identify with any of the boxes the authors had put women in, and felt as though the descriptions were too limiting. After all, we do shift identities as women quite a bit. I felt like his fact was discussed everywhere else in the book except here, so it doesn't even matter too much.
The last section was perhaps my favourite - a reimagined utopia that should already exist, but is so unimaginable that most of us would never dream of it. I would recommend this book for anyone who wants to gain more excellently articulated insight into how women in seemingly progressive metropolitan cities live their lives, and why we desperately need feminism even when on paper women avail the same freedoms as men (which, if you read you will understand why that is a myth :P)
August 18, 2020
The ideas presented in the book are phenomenal and the arguments made are impressive. It's very recently that feminists have taken up subjects of female pleasure, and most of it confines itself to sexual pleasure. But why confine pleasure to just sexual pleasure? Loitering as kind of pleasure is rarely given much due, and moving around without purpose is still questioned.
Although the book speaks about women's freedom to loiter, it at no point disregards others' access to public space, including the so called "predators". The premise of the book is very inclusive, becuase "no one group can claim access for itself without claiming it for all others".
Although the book speaks about women's freedom to loiter, it at no point disregards others' access to public space, including the so called "predators". The premise of the book is very inclusive, becuase "no one group can claim access for itself without claiming it for all others".
January 24, 2021
A "must read" book on women's rights to public spaces in India.
And, they make a radical suggestion
"To do this we need to redefine our understanding of violence in relation to public space—to see not sexual assault, but the denial of access to public space as the worst possible outcome for women."
and, as more and more actions seem to link the right to women's space outside the house with the need to increase surveillance on women, this book is almost prophetic in its suggestions.
(this is a re-read. simply because of the times we are living in)
And, they make a radical suggestion
"To do this we need to redefine our understanding of violence in relation to public space—to see not sexual assault, but the denial of access to public space as the worst possible outcome for women."
and, as more and more actions seem to link the right to women's space outside the house with the need to increase surveillance on women, this book is almost prophetic in its suggestions.
(this is a re-read. simply because of the times we are living in)
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