Entry Restricted, Open Public Spaces in Mumbai.pdf - Urban Design ...

OPEN SPACE | 436All work and hardly any play seemsto be the fate of the Mumbai women. As ourresearch on gender and public space in Mumbairevealed, there is an appalling lack of publicrecreational space for women in the city.Parks and promenades lie at the heart of thecity’s open public spaces and the city’s attitudeto them reflects its attitude to its citizens. Theratio of open space per thousand residents inglobally-aspirational Mumbai is a shameful 0.03acres as against more than three acres in NewDelhi and Kolkata. The National Commission onUrbanisation (1988) suggests that the ideal ratioof open spaces is 4 acres per 1,000 persons.Where parks do exist in Mumbai, they are notequally welcoming to all and are often governedby an impulse not to include but to exclude.Given this grossly inadequate and rapidlyshrinking open space, one might naturally arguethat it is unfair for women to ask for space whenthere is hardly any public recreational spaceeven for others. We contend however, thatwomen’s access to open public space is closelyconnected to access for other groups of citizensto these spaces and cannot be seen in isolation.Our research on parks, maidans and seafrontsshows that many people felt uncomfortablein accessing these spaces. These spacesoften tend to be badly maintained or policedstringently, both discouraging popular use.Open public spaces are frequently seen asbeing an invitation for ‘anti-social-elements’who will somehow misuse them. In the pastdecade, the pressures of liberalisation and theconcomitant rise of right-wing regionalist andcommunal politics has ensured that the list ofthose-who-do-not-really belong- to-the-city islarger than ever before. This now includes thepoor, the barely acknowledged lower castes,the typecast Muslims, the ‘immoral’ couples, the‘too different’ gays and lesbians, the ‘outsider’bhaiyas, the ‘encroacher’ hawkers, the ignoredelderly, and the invisible differently-abled.This social segregation and exclusion isreflected in the everyday spatial practices inthe city. Cases in point are the new concepts ofpublic space management in the city such as paidparks and participation of local resident’s groupsin the upkeep of public spaces. These have onone hand aesthetically improved the spacesunder their jurisdiction but on the other hand,they have reduced the access to many groups.In City Park at the Bandra-Kurla Complexfor example, the entry fee of Rs 5 is notmuch for middle-class people from nearbyneighbourhoods who use it regularly. But settinga fee for accessing a public space fundamentallymilitates against the principle of public-ness andalso has the effect of segregating the space onthe basis of class. Those who cannot afford topay the entry fee everyday - if they happen tobe men, hang around outside the park; if theyare women they wait for weekends and publicholidays. Those are the special days whenfamilies from nearby slums in Dharavi, BharatNagar and Behrampada come there. Ironically,our interviews show that on these days thepresence of working-class people, and in thiscase Muslims, marks the space as undesirablefor the local residents, especially women.Thus, while these parks privilege accessfor a certain class of women (at certain times),this is done at the cost of keeping away othergroups of men who are seen as threats totheir safety and comfort, as well as womenfrom other classes and communities. Sucha method however, can only guaranteeconditional access for middle-class women.The creation of the image of some kinds ofmen as the executors of violence againstwomen, provides the indisputable rationality forrestricting all women’s access to public space.Ironically, both the perceived aggressorand the potential victim become outsidersto public space based on this premise; poormen as potential perpetrators and women aspotential victims. The exclusion and vilificationof other marginal citizens from public space isinextricably linked to the exclusion of women.Moreover, even in pure materialist terms,physical barriers designed to keep outcertain people, effectively keep out womenas well. Urban designers and planners haverepeatedly pointed out that the way to makea public space safer is not by keeping out the‘undesirables’ but by encouraging more andmore ‘desirables’. Ironically parks in Mumbaiare proactively designed to discourage certaingroups from accessing them and this has theeffect of making them unsafe for women as well.An example of this is the Oval Maidan,located along one of the busiest pedestriancorridors in South Mumbai, and restored inthe late 1990s though initiatives of a localcitizens group. The project was successful inaestheticising the space; yet fails to engagewith the city in any manner that would befitits scale and location. The maidan is policedmore stringently and closed at night with theintention of keeping out ‘anti-social’ elements.The high iron fence restricts movement acrossthe maidan and creates deep uncomfortablecorners at the longer ends. In our interviews,many women users of the park reported thatthey did not always feel comfortable using thespace. The lighting in the Oval is also foundwanting. In setting up a variety of physicalbarricades against undesirables, women arealso discouraged from using public spaces.In contrast, Shivaji Park – the only largemaidan in Central Mumbai - is a very goodexample in inclusiveness. The maidansupports activities ranging from politicalrallies attended by tens of thousands tothe intimate conversations of couples. TheOPEN SPACE | 437

OPEN SPACE | 438shifting activities in and around the maidanbegin before day break and carry on late intothe night. The low wide edge wall merelyacts to demarcate the maidan from thespace around it without restricting access.Although located in the middle of apredominantly Maharashtrian residentiallocality, its openness gives it the sense ofbelonging to the larger city. Moreover, thefact that the maidan is open at all times ofthe day and night, means that it is active untilquite late in the night. This is another factorthat makes women feel safe in and around it.Parks as open public spaces are also usedto impose a specific ‘moral vision’ of order onthe city. Citizens groups would like parks tocomply with a notion of middle - class aestheticsand morality - timings for opening and closing,rules about edibles, lists of dos and don’ts inthe park, and the presence of visible securitysignifies not just beauty but also morality.In Mumbai, as in many cities across thecountry, this morality is peculiarly directedat public displays of romantic affection bycouples. Since the home is usually a space ofcrowding, couples often seek privacy alongpromenades or in parks across the city. Atvarious times police personnel have beendirected to discourage such couples byshooing them away or even arresting themon grounds of obscenity and/or immorality.In fact, this moral policing is also imprintedon the body of the city through the designof public spaces such as park benches withdividing armrests and singleton seats. Someyears ago, in the Five Gardens at Dadarfor example, park benches were madeinto single-seaters to discourage couplesfrom engaging in ‘indecent behavior’.Women are often the prime targets in suchcases of culture policing. When canoodlingcouples are rounded up, it is often the youngwomen who are sought to be shamed bythreatening to inform their parents. Forexample in case of the Marine Drive rape in2005, a private security guard appointed by thelocal residents’ association, complained to apoliceman about the victim and her male friendwho were hanging out on Marine Drive, an openpublic promenade, in the late afternoon. Thepoliceman on duty then took the couple forquestioning to the local police chowki, threwthe boy out, and then proceeded to rape her.Her ‘crime’ apparently was in being out witha boy in a public place on a hot afternoon.Certainly, the Marine Drive rape caseexample is an extreme. But no less is it truethat on an everyday basis women in publicare policed on where they are hanging out,what they are wearing, who they are with orwithout, what time they are out and so on.Although there are many women in publicspaces in Mumbai, our research shows thattheir access there is circumscribed by the needto demonstrate purpose and respectability.When being in a public park or promenadeposes a potential threat not just to theirphysical safety but also to their respectability,women are prone to avoiding them.Open public spaces reflect the city’s attitudeto its citizens. The presence of sensitivelydesigned and welcoming public spaces are ameasure of its inclusiveness. The right to the citymeans a right not only to inhabit urban spacesbut also to participate in a city as an ongoingwork of creation, production, and negotiation –acts that are enabled by public spaces. The lackof public spaces for women not just amount to adenial of access, but actively prevent them fromparticipating in shaping the future of the city._______________________________________________________________________________ReferencesKhan, Sameera (2007): ‘Negotiating the Mohalla: Exclusion, Identity and Muslim Women in Mumbai’,Review of Women’s Studies, Economic & Political Weekly, Vol.42, No.17, 1527-1533.Phadke, Shilpa (2007): ‘Dangerous Liaisons: Women and Men; Risk and Reputation in Mumbai’, inReview of Women’s Studies, Economic & Political Weekly, Vol.42, No.17, 1510-1518.Ranade, Shilpa (2007): ‘The Way She Moves: Mapping the Everyday Production of Gender-Space’,Review of Women’s Studies, Economic & Political Weekly, Vol.42, No.17, 1519-1526.OPEN SPACE | 439