Opinion: Opinion: LSR, Astha Kunj And The Unfinished Fight For Women's Right To Public Spaces

Last year, five young women from the Cities for Youth Programme in Ajmer decided to set up Apno Thiyo, pop-up chai stops, not just to serve tea, but to create a safe, open, and public space for women to gather and chat."It was a case of making women visible over something as simple and basic as hanging out over a cup of tea, an image we usually associate with men,'' says Kalpana Viswanath, co-founder of Safetipin, a social organisation set up in 2013 to work with a wide range of urban stakeholders, including governments, to make public spaces more inclusive for women.Initiatives like this remain few and far between. As the gang-rape of a 17-year-old at the Astha Kunj Park in Delhi shows the first instinct whenever there is sexual violence against women is to deny them the freedom to use public spaces.