On 8th March, the Fearless Karnataka group, in collaboration with the Blank Noise Project, responded to the attacks on women in Bengaluru between 6th and 28th February. They marked Women’s Day by conducting street plays and opinion polls, conversed with men and women on the streets, and distributed posters at Rest House Road, Vasanthnagar, CMH Road, Ulsoor and Cunningham Road. These were the very localities where attacks on the women were reported. The group wanted to spread awareness about the violence, and more importantly, to sensitise bystanders to respond proactively to such situations.

Pranesh Prakash, a volunteer for the activities on Rest House Road/Church Street, inviting the security guard at Amoeba Restaurant on Church Street to cast his opinion on what he would do if he saw a woman being attacked. (Pic: Kiran Jonnalagadda)

Nirbhaya Karnataka (Fearless Karnataka (FK)) is a collective formed by citizens to reclaim public spaces and promote safety for all, in the light of the recent attacks on individuals across Karnataka, and Bangalore in particular. Blank Noise is a project that aims to counter harassment in public space, commonly termed 'eve teasing'.

"It was a very powerful experience for me to stand on the road and make eye contact with perfect strangers, inviting them to come and find out what was going on,” said Lalitha Kamath, one of the volunteers who assisted with the activities on CMH Road. “People were definitely interested to find out what was going on and many women came forward saying that they would respond if they saw another woman being beaten for unnecessary reasons,” she added.

On CMH Road and Ulsoor, Maraa, a media collective, put up an interactive performance to provoke passers-by to take notice of the volunteers and engage with them. “I was enthused by the fact that so many people showed such agency. They went to nearby stores, purchased cellophane tape on their own expense, and took posters from us to put up in their neighbourhoods,” said Hemangini Gupta who coordinated the final event at Banappa Park on KG Road, on 8th March and was also present on CMH Road.

International students holding posters outside Blossoms book store to attract the attention of passers-by. (Pic: Gopal Vijayraghavan)

On Ulsoor and Rest House Road, children and adolescent school-going girls enthusiastically came forward and lent their support. “One of the Maraa artists was miming as if she was screaming. The other male artist came forward and asked the audience, in a rhetorical style, ‘Can you hear her screaming?’ One of the children came forward and said, ‘I can’t hear her screaming!’ The children were very excited and they also took posters from us which they put up in the neighbourhood,” narrated Lalitha from her experiences on Ulsoor.

Zainab Bawa is a Ph D student at the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS), Bangalore, studying urban spaces.

Zainab was also a coordinator at the Nirbhaya Karnataka event.

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