Women have no space in Mumbai – `You call it the city of dreams but dreams are not meant for single women, right?
No matter how liberal and modern this city pretends to be, they will always ask you ‘Why do you want to live alone?’ And when you start living on your own, the whole neighbourhood will watch your steps.
Who you bring home?
What time you come home?
When you go out?
What you wear?
And then one fine day, a complaint will be given against you (Not you, but your character) and your landlord will be on your gate saying ‘ye sab yaha nahi chalega, you can leave.’
Honestly, women have no space in Mumbai.
Being one of those who have faced the same, I know that this struggle is real.
I am sure a lot of men face the same problem at times, but they are not asked questions like ‘Who is responsible for you’? Because for girls, only if you have a guardian to give your guarantee, you are considered reliable. Also, I don’t think the landlord tells men what their dress code needs to be and judge their character as per their timings of coming home. Lucky for men!
Facing the same issue after moving to Mumbai for the first time as an advertisement filmmaker, Shikha Makan realized that it is high time for someone to speak up. Shikha managed to get a flat in Mumbai but the landlords weren’t much happy with her late working hours. She thought her career is the drawback in having so much difficulties in find good accommodation in Mumbai but that wasn’t true. She found out after spending 10 years in Mumbai that women from every profession are facing the same issue. And then she decided to speak up with a documentary called ‘Bachelor Girls’.
Shikha started working on this movie 2 years ago and for that, she spoke to many independent women in the city.
She understood that bias exists in the housing society but no one was ready to speak against it. One of the worst things is that even the local women of Mumbai get offended when Shikha talked about this issue because they are too busy in saving the liberal image of Mumbai. Why?
The documentary consists of dialogues from a lot of independent women in the city who have faced similar problems. In fact, Kalki Koechlin is one of them. Just imagine if she didn’t have a place to live in this city and how is it possible for a normal girl?
Along with Kalki, there are many other successful women who have spoken in this documentary and the promo seems really powerful. Here, have a look:
Video – Women have no space in mumbai –
Bachelor Girls Promo from Shikha Makan on Vimeo.
