Techie's murder in Chennai has shattered the city's ‘safe’ narrative

Over the last couple of days, at least once every day, I have had a conversation with someone — family, acquaintance, friends — about the recent murders in Chennai . In particular, the murder of a young woman in a central part of the city, inside a railway station, has made almost all of us uncomfortably aware of just how vulnerable we are. This was not a murder involving gangs, caste fanaticism, or honour — none of those would have shocked us because they happen routinely in Tamil Nadu .

This was a young woman working in IT just waiting for the train.

Safety is a relative word

Women who regularly use public transport in Chennai will tell you that some form of ‘discomfort’, for lack of a better word, is natural to feel in buses and trains, and generally while we walk on the streets. I started using public transport in Chennai when I was in class four. From school to college, and later, for work, the one story of solidarity I have with friends who identify as women, is the various experiences of harassment, and that feeling of being exposed and vulnerable, while on the streets.

We must come to terms with the fact that ‘safety’ is simply relative in our city. My husband feels safer than me. I feel safer than the girl who goes on a train or bus, on the days I drive. And so on and so forth.

Often, when I talk about the experience of feeling ‘unsafe’ on the streets, I have been shut down by people who think, perhaps because of their own class bias, that I am being classist. I would like to reiterate that some of the worst things I have seen in buses over the years were perpetrated by men dressed in ‘formals’. (The least gruesome of them is this: one guy in formals flashed tiny girls in uniforms and tried to rub up against them in a not-so-crowded bus.)

Crime, especially in public spaces, transcends class.

Women who use public transport will tell you that you are being naive if you think a man wearing a shirt, trousers and a backpack does not look like a criminal. (This is what the video released in the news shows; that the man who is wanted in this case wearing).

When fear transcends gender

Safety in public transport has been a matter of concern for mostly women and the vulnerable (sexual minorities, children) until now, because of the nature of the crimes (except for maybe pickpockets). But this time, it’s not harassment. It’s not eve teasing. It’s not flashing. It’s not cat calls. It’s not frotteurism. It’s not pickpocketing. It’s a gruesome murder — in the presence of others who were mute spectators. This time a human life has been taken away. This has made us all painfully aware of the flaw in the ‘safe’ narrative of the city.

When a murder like this happens, it is a reminder that our safety is not absolute. This murder has scared us all a little. That when it wants to, this city can let someone bleed to death is unsettling.

Recently, a few lawyers (all men) were murdered by ‘gangs’ in the streets of Chennai on various days. Dalit men being murdered for marrying Hindu women of different castes in public spaces are routine occurrences in Tamil Nadu.

We all need better policing and safer public spaces. And that young woman, who should not have lost her life, deserves justice. We need an alert civic society that demands all of this.

The author is a Chennai-based writer and founder-editor of The Madras Mag.