Unsafe Spaces

The most disturbing feature of the recent assaults on teenage girls in Bihar and Delhi is the ease with which ordinary public spaces can be turned into places of fear.

A Class 10 girl returning from tuition with a male friend in Jamui in Bihar, was allegedly stopped and assaulted by a group of men. A video of the incident, showing the girl pleading with her attackers and her friend being beaten, spread rapidly online.

Days later, in southeast Delhi, a 15-year-old girl who had visited Kalkaji Temple with a male friend was allegedly taken into a secluded part of Astha Kunj Park by three men posing as policemen. According to the police, the men threatened the teenagers, separated the girl from her friend and sexually assaulted her.

The two cases share an unnerving feature. The perpetrators exploited the vulnerability and the expectation that their victims would find it difficult to resist or obtain immediate help.

Safety is not created by merely announcing tougher laws after an assault. India already has stringent provisions covering sexual violence, including special protections for children. The harder problem is making the state visible before the crime rather than merely energetic afterwards. Poorly monitored public spaces, inadequate lighting, deserted stretches, weak policing and the absence of reliable avenues for immediate assistance all create opportunities for predators.

Urban safety cannot be measured simply by counting police stations or registering complaints. It has to be judged from the perspective of the person using the street or public transport after dark. A public space that is technically open but practically avoided by women is not truly public.

Critically, deterrence depends not only on the severity of punishment but on the perceived certainty of being caught. A law that exists on the statute book but is not accompanied by effective policing, surveillance or rapid investigation loses its meaning.

There is also the social normalisation of intimidation. A girl should not have to calculate whether walking home, meeting a friend, visiting a temple or entering a public park carries an acceptable level of risk. Nor should a boy accompanying her have to discover that being a witness offers little protection against a mob.

There is a further danger in treating every such incident as an isolated aberration. Each case generates brief anger, political statements and demands for action and then the public attention moves on. What remains is the same dark corners and the same gaps in surveillance.

The true test of governance is whether the next girl can walk through the same space without having to depend on a camera, a bystander or a police response after the fact. A safe city is not one in which crimes make the headlines and arrests follow. It is one in which the ordinary act of being outside does not require courage.