Brutal rape, murder taints Kolkata’s reputation as India’s safest city for women

Sudeshna Basu always considered Kolkata, the vibrant state capital of West Bengal, a safe haven for women like herself. But on a recent evening, the 52-year-old Sanskrit lecturer found her sense of security shattered when an autorickshaw driver brazenly catcalled her on her way home from work.

It was just after 9pm – a time Basu and many Kolkatans once regarded as still relatively early and unthreatening. Yet, as she walked by Sovabazar metro station, Basu encountered a group of drunk men causing a ruckus, a scene she says would have been unimaginable in the city’s not-too-distant past.

“Earlier, 9pm was never late for us, but now the city’s law and order seems to have collapsed,” she said. “Plus, the police never listen to women’s complaints.”

“We are angry as this is personal,” said Koyel Ghosh, a 35-year-old non-binary queer feminist activist who helped organise overnight “Reclaim the Night” protests in the wake of the tragedy. “As individuals, our personal angst has fuelled our political will to rise in resistance”.

Physiotherapist Amrita Bhattacharya, 27, was repeatedly tear-gassed by police during the demonstrations, even as she watched them allow a mob of armed men to storm the hospital premises and destroy property. She said the doctor’s killing had shaken her sense of security in a city where she once felt safe.

“Women’s safety has deteriorated gradually,” she told This Week in Asia, recalling how in 2014, she was able to travel on buses filled with men late at night without facing any sexual abuse – but has since been molested on the metro multiple times in one week.

The irony is not lost on Kolkata’s women that their personal safety appears to have deteriorated under the leadership of a woman chief minister, Mamata