In India, a lot of women still prefer the women-only coach in a train, the women-only toilets instead of the general one, the women-only seats in a bus especially when a woman is traveling alone. You can't blame them after all. It all stems from the fact that women are not very safe-- especially in public spaces. The women-only spaces had come about after years of realisation on the hostile male environment where women are constantly made to feel uncomfortable or objectified by the male gaze, or even sexually harassed. But does the need of women-only spaces ban them from being in spaces that are not labelled-- the ones that are practically made for everyone?

Well, if you ask the library in the Asiatic Society in Mumbai, the response might just be 'yes!'

In a Facebook post, Anna Brittas, a student at Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, narrated an incident on a visit to the library. She was pretty much told that no sign means 'No women allowed here'.

Anna told News18 that when she visited the library at about 11 AM, it was fairly empty, except for the ladies section. A small board read 'ONLY LADIES,' and this section, which Anna stated was 'one-ninth of that of the hall' was the section where Anna and her friend were immediately directed towards.

"The section was full, there were round tables with 4-5 chairs around all filled. They were not friendly for students with laptops at all. Maybe one or two chairs were empty but the tables were full. There were about 15-20 women already there," she said.

Anna then asked the staff if they could sit in the general area, as the section was already crowded. But the staff told them they could only sit in the area demarcated for ladies. "Ladies ke liye yeh specifically banaya hai," the staff said.

"The staff working there showed us tiny spaces in the already filled area where we could sit, but on us insisting that we have laptops and the space is too little and we would rather prefer the long tables on the general side we were told that those are for men," she adds.

The TISS student said that the 'general side' was mostly empty with vacant chairs. However, she, her friend and another women were finally seated, "very reluctantly by a staff member".

After ten minutes, a staff came up to them and said that a space had cleared up in the 'Only ladies' section, and asked them to go back, or else "more women would come and join you here".

"Aapke bhalai keliye bol rahe hai," the staff continued. "Ladka ladki saath mei baithenge toh aapko hi issue hoga (This is for your good. A boy and a girl sitting together will cause issue for you)"

Following some commotion, the officer-in-charge allowed to them sit there but asked them to come earlier the next time so as to ‘reserve’ their place in the women's section.

"We managed to sit in the general area, but it was then followed by stares from different staff members who shook their heads in disappointment and some kind of moral judgment," Anna said. "The fact that even in this day and age women have to ‘compromise’, negotiate and fight for something as regular as a place to read shows how far behind the movement we are."

Does a safe, 'women-only' area automatically restrict them from every other section? Sorry to break this to Asiatic Library and all other institutes, NO!

We have emailed the Asiatic Society regarding their rules on seats in the library. The story will be updated as soon as we get a response. 

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