For women, leaving home after dusk implies an automatic invitation to danger and societal censure. Some people have even justified sexual assault and rape on the premise that women out late at night should expect aggression. Amidst this, four women — a cab driver, a bouncer at a popular club, a bar dancer, and a home guard constable guarding the women’s compartment in the local trains — have been defying societal constraints and patriarchal mindsets each night when they go to work. These four Mumbai women work through the night, breaking boundaries that society has traditionally set on women’s mobility, morality, and sexuality. Here are their stories. This episode follows Suvarna, a home guard constable who rides the rails to make sure other women get home safely. SUVARNA, THE HOME GUARD News Clips Hindi News Anchor 1: There was an attempt to rape a 22-year-old woman in a moving local train in Mumbai. Hindi News Anchor 2: An American woman was not just mugged but her throat was slashed by an unknown man in a local train in Mumbai. Voice Over Suvarna: My name is Suvarna Dilip Kharat. I am 38 and I have been working for the Home Guard for 10 years now. Voice Over Suvarna: My work starts at 8pm in the evening and ends at 8am the next morning. The biggest priority for us, posted in those ladies’ compartments, is that no man should enter, especially those who are high on drugs. So, let’s say my train starts from CST to Badlapur, I stand at the train’s door for the duration of the journey till we reach Badlapur. Till the time there are women in the compartment, I don’t sit at all. I am always fearful that men could come into the compartment at any time and something untoward might happen. If that happens, I will be in trouble. After reaching Badlapur, our role doesn’t end — we have to get the train back to CST. Basically, we have to be in the same compartment through both these journeys till the time the train retires for the night at around 2 or 2:30am to ensure that all the women who travel in these trains are safe. Voice Over Suvarna: Once, my friend and me, we were in the train going from Badlapur to CST. There were four druggies who forcibly entered my compartment at Ghatkopar. I had nothing but a baton and a mobile. I was perplexed about how to handle the four of them by myself. As soon as they entered the compartment, I told them if they came even one step ahead, I would push them out of the train without caring for the consequences. While I was doing this, I told my friend to call the control room. By this time, we had reached Matunga station when the cops came in and took them away. Imagine if there were women in the compartment and these druggies would have attacked them. If we were around, we would have surely protected them, but what if we weren’t around? Kunal: Were you not afraid of the possibility that they could be armed? Suvarna: Before I could process the fear, I started thinking of my colleague. She was in uniform, but she was a young girl, who was young and yet to be married. What if they would have tried to do something to her? Voice Over Suvarna: We basically just stay at that last station at the end of a journey. So, let’s say if we get the train back to CST from Kasara, then we simply stay at the station platform in CST because there are no facilities for us — neither to sleep, nor to sit. We work with the police, but the police don’t provide any of the infrastructure or facilities that women need. You must have been to the CST station and noticed the space at the ticket booking office? That’s where both, men and women, sleep in the night. But, the CST station is better because at least there is space near the ticket booking windows. Vashi station is terrible because there is no place to sleep or sit, except on the platforms. So, in the night, platforms are filled with us home guards sleeping all the way till the tracks! The place is full of mosquitoes and we all have to sleep there, out in the open. Voice Over Suvarna: Last night, we reached Thane at 1:30am and we saw all the police men were sleeping and there was no place for women to sleep. So, we had to sit next to a toilet. We asked them if they could make some space for us women, but they flatly refused. Men always get space to sleep in the night, but women are never provided any such facility. Voice Over Suvarna: I don’t sleep a wink in the nights because I don’t like sleeping in public. My women colleagues ask me, why do you not sleep? Now, men and women have to sleep together. I am not comfortable with that. At the very least, I feel there needs to be a separate room for women constables. Voice Over Suvarna: Often, when Home Guards does something, no one recognises it as us doing it. It’s always the police that gets all the credit. When we do something, the least that people can do is at least give us our due credit. Voice Over Suvarna: We don’t get a monthly pay, or even a weekly off. We...
