November 2007 Edition

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Shuktara Lal
Kolkata

ONE evening Jasmeen Pathreja, a student at the Srishti School of Art Design and Technology, was walking down main CMH road in Bangalore. "It was about 6 pm,” she recalls. “It was not completely dark, nor lonely or quiet. I usually look at people when I walk. A cyclist went past me, completely nonthreatening. I suddenly felt something cold soaking through my clothes. He had spat his paan on me.” As if being groped, squeezed or leered at isn’t enough, women are spat at on the streets of cities by lascivious criminals. Filthy abuse is hurled. Ask any young woman how she feels. Street sexual assault is utterly humiliating. It makes you seethe with rage. In India, such crimes are fobbed off as ‘eve-teasing’—a mere joke or a prank. In reality this is violence inflicted on unsuspecting women innocently going about their daily routine. One woman is harassed every 12 minutes in India, according to a report by the National Crime Records Bureau in 2002. Most of these crimes go unrecorded. Not many women do anything about it. But Jasmeen Patheja decided to confront such crime. In 2003 she started Blank Noise, a community arts project that explores street dynamics and recognises ‘eve teasing’ as street sexual harassment or violence.

As a student at the Srishti School of Art Design and Technology in Bangalore, when Jasmeen had to formulate her final year project, she chose to focus on sexual harassment. The common thread linking the origins of Blank Noise with the project as it stands today is Jasmeen’s use of art. Blank Noise now has chapters in Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Chennai, Hyderabad and Lucknow. In each of these cities, participating members think up ideas and stage, what Jasmeen calls, “interventions”. Art and performance are used to catch public attention to street sexual harassment. Blank Noise members, who take part, are not professional or even amateur performers. They are ordinary people (largely women) fighting for their right to walk on the streets of their cities without having to worry about safety. Blank Noise calls them ‘Action Heroes.’

One successful and discerning intervention was aptly titled: “Did you ask for it?” Blank Noise members gathered clothes that women had worn when they were sexually harassed. These were then displayed as an installation.“Did you ask for it” debunks the notion that women who dress ‘provocatively’ attract unwanted attention, for the clothes on display included not only spaghetti-strap tops, but loose shirts and nondescript churidar-kurtas. This accumulation of clothing is an ongoing process. Explains Jasmeen:“Blank Noise volunteers are spread all over. Individuals from Baramulla in Kashmir, Singapore, Pakistan, the Andaman Islands, Dindugal and Kolkata collect clothes to create such installations. We are also collaborating with Holla Back NYC, a New York-based agency, to collect clothes as testimonies in the US.” Another intervention gets a group of women to stand around traffic signals, each wearing a letter or a word. The words, when read together, ask out the question,“Y R U LOOKING AT ME?” An extension of this intervention involves getting a group of women to stand on a road in the city for around 15 minutes, without having to feign being preoccupied, waiting for someone or talking on the phone.

Instead, the women are encouraged to stare at passersby. They are often asked to wear something they would not have worn ordinarily, fearing unsolicited comments or physical contact.“The idea behind this is to get women to claim their city and build a relationship with it that does not come out of fear,” explains Jasmeen. “The Action Heroes who participate in these street actions feel a sense of empowerment, whether it is being able to say and believe, ‘I never asked for it,’ or simply walking in the middle of a footpath without bags and elbows placed in front of them.” In Delhi, an equally innovative intervention has been carried out. Women between nine to 70 years of age paint testimonials on the streets and pavements at night, writing their names, ages and the nature of the crimes they were subjected to. Says Jasmeen: “The testimonials indicate that where one is standing could be a site where someone experienced street sexual harassment. This intervention also aims at breaking myths related to sexual harassment by covering all aspects, whether it is making sounds, ogling, touching, stalking, groping etc.” Blank Noise has an active blog which is an intrinsic part of its street campaigns. Bloggers are invited to narrate their experiences of street sexual harassment online.

Recently, the Blank Noise blog invited women to send a list of words ornames that had been hurled at them when they were out on the streets. Since many women listed food items such as tomato, pumpkin, malai and papaya, one post was devoted entirely to foods that women had been equated with. The Blank Noise blog has detailed information on legal remedies available to victims of sexual harassment. Some bloggers wanted to start Blank Noise projects in their cities. Blank Noise interventions try at find out why sexual harassment takes place. The project examines male codes of behavior, cultural expectations and societal perceptions. Blank Noise also puts forward searching questions to its supporters.“Blank Noise asks, do you accept it because you expect it?” says Jasmeen. The street campaigns exert legitimate claims over public spaces by demanding that women have the right to feel comfortable and secure in a city. But most importantly, Blank Noise tries to encourage people to take sexual harassment on the streets seriously. It is significant that Blank Noise opposes interchanging the terms “sexual harassment” with the flimsy alternate expression, “eve teasing”. The project tries to convey the seriousness of the offence to men and women alike. “Blank Noise does not seek to be about men vs. women, as much as it proposes to address street sexual harassment as everybody’s issue,” says Jasmeen.

In Kolkata, the project has just been started, but the excitement is palpable. Sunayana Roy, who is involved with the Kolkata chapter, says: “Blank Noise is very empowering. I’ve lived in Kolkata for more than five years and I often had unpleasant encounters on the city’s streets. It is reassuring to know that there is now a group of people who are thinking of ways in which to fight street sexual harassment.” “The Blank Noise blog encourages you to take photos, if you have a cameraphone, of harassers and upload them onto the blog. It had never struck me that I could do something like that, and, recently, I took photos of men who were harassing me on the Metro,” says Sunayana. The toughest challenge before Blank Noise is to bring down or eliminate instances of street sexual assaults. Jasmeen acknowledges that Blank Noise will have to think of how they can bring more men into the forefront of the project. Anuj Dasgupta, another member from Kolkata is optimistic: “A big plus point of Blank Noise campaigns is their interactive nature. Such interactive interventions can, if channelised properly, decrease sexual harassment cases.”

(If you want to relate testimonies of acts of street sexual harassment you have faced, or if you would like to help start
a Blank Noise project in your city, visit the Blank Noise blog: http://www.blanknoiseproject.blogspot.com/)

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