‘Kya Dekh Rahe Ho?’ at ITO

We have faced it. Hated it. And yet, quite often we have had to ignore it. Staring hurts.

But this Mar 8, we celebrated International Women’s Day, by confronting it. We stood as a group at one of the busiest traffic signal in Delhi, the ITO crossing and stared right back at people who stopped at the signal.

JAGORI and Blank Noise tied up for another - ‘Kya Dekh Rahe Ho?’ on Mar 8, 2007. The objective was to question ‘Staring’, a very common form of street sexual harassment and to demonstrate what it feels like to be stared at. Something women are forced to face in Delhi, the moment they step out of their homes, and men frequently dismiss as something very casual.

When the signal turned red, two groups of women appeared at the ITO crossing, wearing letters that spelt ‘Kya Dekh Rahe Ho’ (What are you looking at?). The letters were written using red reflective tape, so they were clearly visible in the dark. One group wore the lettering in Hindi this time; the other in English. Just as the signal turned green, the women stepped onto the side pavement, still retaining the formation, so they were visible to the vehicles passing by.

While the women volunteers stood at the intersection in the formation, another group of volunteers including men distributed pamphlets on the issue to people who stopped at the signal as well as by-standers.

For many of us women, it was the first time we stood in a public space in Delhi with such confidence. We reclaimed our space for that one hour. A very empowering experience indeed!

Photographs of Kya Dekh Rahe Ho, ITO

by Harneet Bhatia

Related Links

Some More Phtotographs of Kya Dekh Rahe Ho at ITO
Photographs by Supreet Sethi

Dec 8, Kya Dekh Rahe Ho at Saket
The first “Kya Dekh Rahe Ho” in Delhi