As the clock strikes midnight, Indian women are reclaiming their streets

A nocturnal campaign to conquer unsafe neighbourhoods is gaining momentum

Legends of Bombay Bards has been organising women's-only night biking tours in Mumbai since 2017. Photo: Legends of Bombay Bards

Once a month, at midnight, a group of women set out on a walking tour through Noida, a city in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

The night walks are organised by Women Walk At Midnight, a women’s collective launched in 2016 that organises monthly night tours in various Indian cities.

The idea is to help women explore “unsafe neighborhoods”, reclaim public spaces and challenge patriarchy.

"I’m from a middle class family. My parents don’t allow me to step outside our home after 6pm. So it was exhilarating to be up and about with other women and experience this kind of freedom at midnight in our own city,” says Akriti Gupta, 22, a college student.

On their walk, the women try to do group activities – such as leaving a trail of stickers that read "We Were Here" on trees, walls and bus stops to assert that the city belongs as much to them as to the male gender. They also discuss their lifestyles and professions, the societal challenges they face and how they overcome them. Some sing songs together or stop for a tea or ice-cream break, further reinforcing their sorority.

Gupta recalls how the two-hour walk took her – and eight other women aged 22 to 42 years – through residential areas, crowded markets, malls and Kafkaesque alleys.

“The experience changed my relationship with the night,” she says. “It demystified a time of day when Indian women aren’t supposed to venture out, especially for pleasure. Knowing that I could be safe outside my home at a time when I’ve been brainwashed into believing I shouldn’t be stepping out, was strangely liberating.”

Meanwhile, hundreds of kilometres away in India’s financial capital Mumbai, half a dozen women friends are excitedly climbing on to their bikes for a spin around the city.

The price for the three-hour, 12km, weekend-only tour from 10pm to 1am is $15. Priyank Deshmukh, an engineer, whose company – Legends of Bombay Bards – has been organising these trips since 2017 says the experience combines biking with storytelling sessions.

Each tour has a different theme – such as Mumbai’s Heritage, Haunted Spots or 26/11 Terrorist Attacks.

“The idea is to reveal a lesser-known side of the city to the participants and also encourage them to come out at night to do something interesting. It could be a digital detox, rediscovering the city in a neon haze or an exercise to overcome their fear of travelling at night,” says Ms Deshmukh, an entrepreneur who featured in the Netflix travel series Midnight Asia.

“It was so exciting to go out on the streets bonding with other women. I learnt so much about my own city I didn’t know before,” says Neelam Khanna, 40, who moved from Dubai back to Mumbai after 18 years.

“Our group had people from Korea, Germany, the US and it was enriching to learn about their life experiences and realise that night isn’t a time to be scared of.”

Shweta Dingane, 34, says she loved the idea of a midnight bike tour because of its positive message of empowerment.

“Traditionally, even though Mumbai is considered relatively safe for women, women don’t step out unless we’re attending a party. Biking around to explore the city at our own time and pace was a refreshing experience and I’d do it again in a heartbeat," she says.

The basic idea behind these nocturnal excursions, organisers say, is to make women feel a part of the city no matter what time of day it is. This is vital, they say, because women’s safety in India is a huge concern.

A survey by technology platform Neta App to gauge women’s sentiments concerning their safety in 2019, found that 42 per cent of Indian women felt unsafe in their surroundings; 78 per cent felt that authorities were not taking measures sufficient to ensure the safety of women in India; and about 43 percent revealed that they had experienced events where their safety was undermined.

One thousand women throughout India participated in the study.

India is perhaps the lead of other countries. Reclaiming the night through walks and marches is happening all over the world, in the US, Japan and across Europe, where women are coming out on streets at night to protest against sexual harassment and to demonstrate that they can resist fear and violence at that hour.

Artist Jasmeen Patheja, founder of Blank Noise, a forum tworking towards "un-gendering" public spaces to amplify the conversation around sexual violence, has launched several successful projects. The most recent, I Never Ask For It, documented incidents of harassment faced by more than 10,000 women. In it, Ms Patheja asked survivors to donate the item of clothing they were wearing when they were harassed and built an online exhibition in retaliation to victim-blaming.

Her other notable initiative, Meet To Sleep, had women from different age groups taking over public parks in the city to lie down, nap, read and wander about, with the aim of increase the visibility of women. This activity is now being replicated by women’s groups across the country.

“I have lived in Delhi for years yet I have never taken a walk outside my neighbourhood unescorted by a man," she says.

"I want to give women a chance to feel safe in public spaces at night. It’s also a great occasion for the group to bond over their fears of walking alone. Shouldn’t it be normal for us to go for a walk at night?”