When Men ‘Loitered’ in Skirts on Mumbai Streets #FreeYourMind:

Mumbai’s men took to the streets in skirts & sarees. To see why it’s tough for women to ‘loiter’. FreeYourMind.

Why Loiter?

It’s a question a woman is asked often. So often that she has become used to justify her movement in public space.

After loitering in parks and other public spaces for almost a year every Sunday, Neha Singh and Devina Kapoor asked men in Mumbai to join them in the loitering. Some men readily obliged, and walked alongside the women in skirts, sarees, and salwar kameezes. From Prithvi Theatre to Juhu beach on April 4, Saturday, last week.

Shilpa Phadke, co-author of Why Loiter? explains the seemingly inane topic of loitering, and its importance to a woman in asserting her rights.

As long as she can justify her presence with a purpose, and demonstrate that she is a respectable woman, a woman is given conditional access to be in a public space. What women need to claim is the unconditional right to public space.

– Shilpa Phadke, Co-author, Why Loiter?

We, at The Quint, think this movement is a step ahead in our campaign to FreeYourMind. Hear what the co-organiser of the Why Loiter? Campaign, Neha Singh has to say.

Vikrant, a theatre artist who participated at the event that saw men dressed as women, talked to us.

Here’s what he said:

It was wonderful to watch everyone embrace this idea of individual freedom and liberty, to say that I will choose what I want to wear..

– Vikrant, Theatre Artist

Dhruv, another participant who dressed as a woman, said:

As men we need to offer more acceptance and less advice to women so that they can be equal participants in society.

– Dhruv, Mumbai-based Actor

The campaign, Why Loiter? Mumbai launched in May 2014, borrowing the idea from an eponymous book that Shilpa Phadke, Shilpa Ranade and Sameera Khan wrote.

Cut To Turkey; In February 2015, Turkish men protested against the rape and murder of a woman by walking the streets in black skirts. Ozgecan Aslan, the woman was 20. Her body was burned and dumped in a riverbed. The idea of men wearing skirts to protect them was inspired from the protests.

We, at The Quint, ask, “ Why not free your mind, dress as you will, anytime, anywhere, and simply loiter”? #FreeYourMind