Disclaimer: The following piece has been written based on my own experience with sincere respect for the experiences of others.
It’s 8 am on a Monday and dodging past several strangers you hastily run towards the farther end of the station. You know that time is slipping by at the same speed that the metro is racing in your direction. When it stops, you close your eyes and board it via the closest entrance, charge towards the unoccupied corner, adjust your kurta, hug your purse and, lean, making your chosen corner your private, safe space. As you look around, a sense of unfamiliarity creeps in, the seats are blue and most passengers are men! An irrational thought makes its way into your head, making you believe for a brief moment that you’ve what can be called “phobia of the general compartment”. While you brush this thought away, you begin retrospecting on how unconsciously, several women like you have made the “women-only” compartment an indispensable part of their daily lives and how important it is for you to put it out to the world that this space, however many debates it becomes the center of and however many times its essentiality comes under scrutiny, is more important than most humans deem it to be.
Delhi metro’s “women-only” compartment was added in 2010. Before this, DTC buses had become hotspots of crimes against women. In an old survey conducted by the NGO Jagori, 80% of respondents reported that they had faced sexual harassment in buses and other forms of public transport. By this time, buses already provided reserved seats to women. However, the need was not for a few extra seats but a liberating, safe space for women that the “women-only” compartment finally promised.
The narrative in support of the women’s compartment can be understood by acknowledging how the actualization of a liberating space is conducive to women’s emancipation. Spatial considerations play an integral role in determining how people “do gender”. In one sense, this space addresses the question of women’s respectability. Inside this compartment, women are relatively less likely to mold their behavior along the lines of traditional understandings of what respectable feminine behavior must be like and hence, can express themselves freely. While this can be noticed through changes in their body language, it also gives them the space to dress as they wish to. Thus, women’s liberation through self-expression is made possible. Secondly, it keeps them away from the frightening, undesirable and, unsolicited male gaze and touch. Additionally, the authority provided to women inside this space to policemen if they violate their privacy overturns power dynamics as for the first time, women have authority and agency in the public space that traditionally has been awarded to men.
How women perform gender can be noticed while viewing how they’ve owned this space and how the constitution of femininity inside this is different from that in the wider public realm. From an insider’s perspective, the “women-only” compartment is a tiny private space within which individuals create even tinier private spaces. While a few delve deep into reading, some squat on one edge of the compartment relishing their playlists, others do what we can call “work from metro” and yet others create conversations. Amidst all this, there’s the frequent exchange of glances, clarifications regarding directions and stations and now and then, you’d witness the sudden spurt in solidarity when men enter this space. Women claim the space that is rightfully theirs by politely asking them to leave. While the specifics of their behaviors may vary, women inside this compartment can be seen laughing a tad bit louder, spreading their legs a little wider and, squeezing on seats in such proximity with one another that they can easily catch the fragrance of each others’ shampoos.
While these changes are apparent, emerging counter-narratives say that instead of integrating women into the mainstream public realm, a secluded space further pushes them away from coming close to the position of men. While this seems like a rational understanding on the surface, it refuses to acknowledge that women’s empowerment and equality has not so much to do with their physical proximity to men but their climb up the ladder in the overall gender discourse which will inevitably come through an increase in opportunities in accessing the public space and exercising authority within it, a freedom that the “women-only” compartment provides.
The question of gender has only partially been addressed in the public transport discourse. The debates surrounding the importance of the “women-only” compartment stem from ignorance regarding gender and its overpowering impact on access and mobility. In a country where women’s safety, their agency over their bodies and, overall respect is often compromised even inside the ‘safe’ spaces of their homes, their access to public transport and the wider public sphere rests on whether there appears a perceived threat to their livelihoods while they access these spaces. Cultural considerations already limit their mobility. Thus, the question of safe traveling spins in the heads of women as well as their families, and the introduction of the private space of the said compartment in a form of public transport has greatly reduced their fears and incentivized many women to take up space in the public sphere. Whether we realize it or not, this marks a huge leap into the direction of the nation’s overall development, aiming to cross one hurdle placed on the road to women’s participation in the workforce.
This is for all women. If you board the general compartment on a regular Monday morning and immediately crave being in the “women-only” compartment, remember, there’s someone who feels exactly how you do. Every ride in this compartment will give you one fresh story to narrate to your family during dinner time. And every story will be reflective of ideas of solidarity, strength, sisterhood, authority, respect, compassion, freedom and, empowerment that women exhibit inside this compartment. Happy Travelling!