yes

women

pavement

Pritish Nandy

missing

Pramod ‘pink chaddi’ Muthalik may have met his fate, but mannequin morality crusader Ritu Tawde is ready to take on sexual predators.Ritu Tawde silently wishes her colleague was around on Wednesday afternoon at her ground floor Pitadewadi home. The man challengingly demanded an order letter before N ward officers could clear Ghatkopar East’s MG Road pavements of lingerie-wearing mannequins.Tawde, a 39-year-old BMC corporator, has been the flavour of the week since the media reported that she had mooted a proposal on April 26 to ban “indecent” mannequins in shop windows, on pavements and at roadside stalls. An immediate nod from mayor Sunil Prabhu and a unanimous aye from all 226 corporators at a general body meeting means all that’s awaited is afrom BMC commissioner Sitaram Kunte.Her neat but bitty drawing room that displays a tableful of congratulatory bouquets cannot contain broadcast journalists lining up for a byte. “It’s thanks to you all,” she says to one of them trying to convince her to make the trudge to Lower Parel for a late-night debate. The BBC Radio team is in a fix. They must figure how they will get her to take listener questions after she requested she be allowed to speak in Hindi or Marathi.“Customers will walk in regardless. The mannequins are certainly not there to lurein. Then who are they for?” she asks, straightening her gold-dusted dupatta in a moment when she is utterly convinced of the power of acrylic dummies as sexual stimuli that can spur a man to rape.The idea, says Tawde, who has been a political worker for nine years — first with the Congress, and now the BJP — came to her when students from the neighbouring SNDT College complained of street harassment by boys when they negotiated a crowdedlittered with “two-piece” wearing mannequins placed outside shops. She has their support, as she does of neighbours, ward residents, even her domestic help who gave her a thumbs up that morning. The “20 per cent minority that lives in high towers” don’t deter her. Which is why she waves her gilded fingers at acerbic tweets, like the one fromwho said, “I’ve never been aroused by a mannequin. Maybe our BMC corporators are.”“Let’s have the likes of Bharat Dabholkar, who called my idea ‘rubbish’, survey Ghatkopar’s slums, hear stories of sexual harassment when women visit public toilets,” she says, throwing a challenge.A mother of two teenagers (a boy and a girl), Tawde is aware her decision is being labelled regressive with no basis in logic. We are after all, talking about a country that supports a 1,500 crore adults products industry, and makes porn available to anyone with a cellphone. “I can’t ban Hindi films, can I? Taking away all freedoms will only alienate my supporters. But I must do what I can in my own small way, right here in my neighbourhood to make the streets safer for women.”With the Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association writing to Kunte about the profit-souring proposal, Tawde says they are finally talking business. “They wish to sell, no matter how. They’ve dragged the izzat of women right into the bazaar,” she says looking disgusted, while her husband fiddles on his cellphone in the doorway to the bedroom.A BMC staffer, who has dropped in to deliver an envelope, complains of having visited several times in the last two days, buther each time. “I’ve been in and out of interviews… not a moment free,” Tawde smiles in defence.“Tai ni chhan issue ghetlela ahe,” he says to me, turning to put on his slippers that sit beside a Hercules cycle. One leg out of the house, he whispers, “This is about the ban on beauty queens, right?”