Women on Mumbai's traffic lights: a sign of India's long road to gender equality

This month, some of Mumbai's 12 million people will see something different when they cross the road - at certain traffic lights, the little red and green figures will now be in dresses instead of trousers.

The authorities of one of India's largest metropolises have replaced the traditional male stick figures with female silhouettes on more than 100 traffic lights on a stretch of road, becoming the first city to do so in what it calls a step towards gender equality.

"The idea behind this is to communicate to people that public places also belong to women," says Vijayshree Pednekar, an urban planner in Mumbai. She suggested the initiative to the city's municipal corporation as part of a broader project called Culture Spine, which is headed by Aaditya Thackeray, the tourism and environment minister of the western start of Maharashtra, where Mumbai is located.

Various polls have named India as one of the world's most dangerous countries for women. A 2016 survey by charity ActionAid UK found that nearly four out of five women in India had faced public harassment, which can range from staring and wolf-whistling to stalking, groping and even rape.

"Men harass us on roads; they click our pictures in metro trains, and when the government reserves seats for us on public transport, they taunt us over that," says Meera Bhilwara, who is part of a group of young women in New Delhi called Khadar ki Ladkiyan, or Khadar Girls, who created a rap song in 2018 based on their experiences of sexual harassment.

"Once a few men accosted me on a bus and forced me to vacate a seat because they were upset the Delhi government had made public transport free for women," she says. "I don't think these traffic lights are going to change any of that."

Critics of the initiative, including gender activists and urban planners, say that without real structural and policy changes to address violence against women, it is merely a token gesture.

"I would have rather liked [the authorities and city planners] to understand how women use the city and what planning and infrastructure changes they can do to make cities more women-inclusive," says Sneha Visakha, a legal researcher working on urban development in Bangalore.

The discourse of urban planning through a gendered lens gained particular prominence in India after the 2012 New Delhi gang rape incident, which caused a huge public outcry. The government set aside a fund of more than US$140 million for the development of better infrastructure such as street lights and surveillance cameras to ensure women's safety, and launched helplines for women.

Meera Bhilwara (in grey) and Khadar ki Ladkiyan, or Khadar Girls, who created a rap song in 2018 based on their experiences of sexual harassment. Photo: Romita Saluja alt=Meera Bhilwara (in grey) and Khadar ki Ladkiyan, or Khadar Girls, who created a rap song in 2018 based on their experiences of sexual harassment. Photo: Romita Saluja

"The incident indeed steered our attention to women's safety, although it reinforced our protectionist attitude," Visakha says. "Politicians often make statements like 'Women should return home before dark' while discussing safety, which further controls our movement and reinforces the patriarchy.

"In India, women are still not actively involved in planning and building cities, as against Europe and the United States, where female geographers and urban planners have been doing gender mainstreaming for several decades."

The Mumbai authorities also seem to have sought inspiration from European countries such as Germany and Switzerland, which have more gender-inclusive pedestrian crossings. Vienna and London also recently featured same-sex couples on traffic lights. Urban planner Pednekar acknowledges the need to include other sections such as transgender people, children, and people with disabilities, and says there is a lot of room for creativity.

Visakha says: "Symbols can be powerful but they need to be combined with action." She suggests involving women in urban planning, surveying local needs, building more toilets for women and transgender people, and developing public transport and pedestrian-friendly pathways. "We need to understand who is building our city, literally."

Bhilwara from Khadar ki Ladkiyan knows the new traffic lights are a long way from an answer. "People would look at the red and green female signs for a few seconds," she says. "How does this make me feel safe as a woman if they then go on to harass me and the government continues to ignore it?"

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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