Book launch of ‘The Fear That Stalks: Gender-Based Violence in Public Spaces’

“It is imperative that there is constant engagement of the men in the society on issues of sexual harassment and sexuality,” said Rahul Roy, Akar at the recently held launch of the book The Fear that Stalks: Gender Based Violence in Public Spaces. PRIA has been working and advocating on gendered sensitive cities. In this regard, PRIA representatives were invited to attend the launch.

A joint project of UNDP, India and Centre for Equity and Inclusion (CEQUIN), New Delhi, the book is based on proceedings of a two-day conference ‘Gender Based Violence in Public Spaces: Challenges and Solutions’ in October 2010. The book deals with wide ranging issues related and linked to gender justice and equality. Edited by Sara Pilot and Lora Prabhu of CEQUIN the book starts the discourse with writings on the idea of masculinity and the notion of why men harass? The engaging conversation in the book then introduces a perspective which cuts across gender and urban planning. Shilpa Phadke in her essay ‘Gendered usage of public spaces: A case study of Mumbai’ says that women inhabit a city differently from a men. Carefully researched and based on empirical work in the suburbs of Mumbai, Phadke expands on the conceptual categories and ideological context which influences urban planning and related policies that impact women’s capacity to be in public spaces.

The book does not fix the focus of gender based violence to only interactions and linkages between women and men. Two papers, namely, ‘Gender-based Violence Faced by Hijras in Public Spaces in Urban India’ by Prabhu Ghate et al. and ‘Women and Homelessness’ by Chaudhary et al. explore the violence subjected to the transgender community and the complex layered violence faced by homeless women for whom the boundaries of public and private space are blurred or overlap.

Present at the book launch was Farah Naqvi, member of the National Advisory Council, Caitlin Wiesen, Country Director, UNDP, Indira Jaisingh, Additional Solicitor General, Supreme Court of India, Lora Prabhu, Director, CEQUIN, Kalpana Vishwanath, Jagori and the feminist publisher and activist Urvashi Butalia. The esteemed group present conducted a panel discussion and remarked on the changing dynamics of sexuality and harassment in both urban and rural areas. The dominant literature on gender based violence and public spaces has been primarily explored in urban settings. However, the panellists and the authors present acknowledged that the nature of public and private and women’s perception in the rural parts of India is a significant aspect which requires further deliberation.