For women, leaving home after dusk implies an automatic invitation to danger and societal censure. Some people have even justified sexual assault and rape on the premise that women out late at night should expect aggression.Amidst this, four women — a cab driver, a bouncer at a popular club, a bar dancer, and a home guard constable guarding the women’s compartment in the local trains — have been defying societal constraints and patriarchal mindsets each night when they go to work. These four Mumbai women work through the night, breaking boundaries that society has traditionally set on women’s mobility, morality, and sexuality.Here are their stories.This episode follows Suvarna, a home guard constable who rides the rails to make sure other women get home safely.SUVARNA, THE HOME GUARDNews ClipsHindi News Anchor 1: There was an attempt to rape a 22-year-old woman in amoving local train in Mumbai.Hindi News Anchor 2: An American woman was not just mugged but her throat wasslashed by an unknown man in a local train in Mumbai.Voice OverSuvarna: My name is Suvarna Dilip Kharat. I am 38 and I have been working for theHome Guard for 10 years now.Voice OverSuvarna: My work starts at 8pm in the evening and ends at 8am the next morning.The biggest priority for us, posted in those ladies’ compartments, is that no manshould enter, especially those who are high on drugs. So, let’s say my train startsfrom CST to Badlapur, I stand at the train’s door for the duration of the journey tillwe reach Badlapur. Till the time there are women in the compartment, I don’t sit atall. I am always fearful that men could come into the compartment at any time andsomething untoward might happen. If that happens, I will be in trouble. Afterreaching Badlapur, our role doesn’t end — we have to get the train back to CST.Basically, we have to be in the same compartment through both these journeys tillthe time the train retires for the night at around 2 or women who travel in these trains are safe.Voice OverSuvarna: Once, my friend and me, we were in the train going from Badlapur to CST.There were four druggies who forcibly entered my compartment at Ghatkopar. I hadnothing but a baton and a mobile. I was perplexed about how to handle the four ofthem by myself. As soon as they entered the compartment, I told them if they cameeven one step ahead, I would push them out of the train without caring for theconsequences. While I was doing this, I told my friend to call the control room. Bythis time, we had reached Matunga station when the cops came in and took themaway. Imagine if there were women in the compartment and these druggies wouldhave attacked them. If we were around, we would have surely protected them, butwhat if we weren’t around?Kunal: Were you not afraid of the possibility that they could be armed?Suvarna: Before I could process the fear, I started thinking of my colleague. She wasin uniform, but she was a young girl, who was young and yet to be married. What ifthey would have tried to do something to her?Voice OverSuvarna: We basically just stay at that last station at the end of a journey. So, let’ssay if we get the train back to CST from Kasara, then we simply stay at the stationplatform in CST because there are no facilities for us — neither to sleep, nor to sit.We work with the police, but the police don’t provide any of the infrastructure orfacilities that women need. You must have been to the CST station and noticed thespace at the ticket booking office? That’s where both, men and women, sleep in thenight.But, the CST station is better because at least there is space near the ticket bookingwindows. Vashi station is terrible because there is no place to sleep or sit, except onthe platforms. So, in the night, platforms are filled with us home guards sleeping allthe way till the tracks! The place is full of mosquitoes and we all have to sleep there,out in the open.Voice OverSuvarna: Last night, we reached Thane at were sleeping and there was no place for women to sleep. So, we had to sit next toa toilet. We asked them if they could make some space for us women, but they flatlyrefused. Men always get space to sleep in the night, but women are never providedany such facility.Voice OverSuvarna: I don’t sleep a wink in the nights because I don’t like sleeping in public. Mywomen colleagues ask me, why do you not sleep? Now, men and women have tosleep together. I am not comfortable with that. At the very least, I feel there needsto be a separate room for women constables.Voice OverSuvarna: Often, when Home Guards does something, no one recognises it as usdoing it. It’s always the police that gets all the credit. When we do something, theleast that people can do is at least give us our due credit.Voice OverSuvarna: We don’t get a monthly pay, or even a weekly off. We don’t even havestandard 8-hour shifts. We are constantly working for the police, come rain or sun,and even through festivals. Despite this, we are treated very shabbily.Kunal: You don’t even have a weekly day off?Suvarna: We don’t even have a weekly day off. If we take even a day’s holiday, ourpay gets cut. This is wrong. We have worked for 10-12 years. I have been workingsince we were paid Rs 90 per day. I would get Rs 3,500 each month. I’ve beenworking since then. What have you given us for all these years of service?Kunal: How many hours would you have to work to earn 90 rupees?Suvarna: 12 hours!Voice OverSuvarna: Everyone is made permanent and given jobs, but we are kept temporary insuch precarious work conditions. Just because we are supposed to be a ‘voluntary’force? The question is, are you making us work like we are a voluntary force? No,right? Then how can you not make us permanent?Voice OverSuvarna: We go to the first class compartments too. But, the women in thosecompartments never feel like we are one of them, or co-operate with us. They neverdo! Women in the first class don’t co-operate with us as much as women in thesecond class compartments do.Our duty requires us to stand at the door because our supervisors at the stationcheck our attendance by checking the doors from the platforms. So, when we are inthe first class and if women are standing there and we request them to move, theyquestion us. They say we are making them move so that we can stand by the doorand enjoy the breeze! Don’t we all want the wind, they ask us rudely. These womendon’t think or realise that we are not there to enjoy ourselves, but to protect them.In the second class compartment, on the other hand, all the women co-operate withus and are very nice to us. They also struggle and work like us, unlike those firstclass women who work in offices and act snooty. There is more solidarity here. Theyare much more empathetic and know what it feels like to have to stand for hours onend. They come to us and offer their seats and tell us to sit. Even when we refuse,saying we can’t, they insist on us sitting for a few minutes. They say, we won’tcomplain. No one would do this in the first class.Voice OverSuvarna: I was going to Badlapur in the first class compartment one night. It was herlast day at work, so she had received a bouquet of flowers. She didn’t say a worduntil then but when the last station came, while getting off, she came to me, gaveme a rose, a chocolate and even offered a salute. She said it was only because ofme that she could travel all the way to Badlapur in the train by herself. She said shewas feeling very proud of herself. I felt very good about it, the fact that there issomeone who wants to salute us. It felt very good when she gave me the rose andthe chocolates. I told all my friends about it.Voice OverSuvarna: I was not going to join the Home Guard. In fact, I had always wanted tobecome a police officer. I tried 2-3 times, but they kept rejecting me because I wasnot tall enough. Someone I knew told me that the Home Guard was recruiting. So, Ithought to myself, I will be able to don the khaki with the Home Guard too, so whynot? The thing was, even at the Home Guard, in the initial training, I was notselected. After 4 days of training, I was rejected by them because I am not tallenough. That day, I cried a lot. I told people I had trained hard. I would wake up atstruggled a lot, so I told them I will not leave, even if everyone else leaves. Theytold me that they could not take me, so I asked them if that was the case, then whydid they even select me for training in the first place? So, I remained stubborn andthen, they finally relented. After that, I even became the commander of 71 otherwomen there!Voice OverSuvarna: Lots of them told me. Even my family told me, why are you doing the nightshift? This isn’t even work. I told them, I said you come with me and see what it is towork in the night and what my role is. Don’t believe what society tells you. You seeit for yourself. I’ll take you along. You can pretend to be a passenger in the train andI’ll anyway be doing my duty, like I always do. So, you will see what it is to beworking in the night and how I feel, donning the uniform at night. I told my family allthis, especially my mother, my sister and my uncles. All of them were unhappy withmy night shift. But I feel like that was the best decision I made.Voice OverSuvarna: Earlier, I would often think, what will society say if women like me steppedout in the night? But then it struck me, why do I care about society so much?Because when I am at home starving, does society come to check on me, to see if Ihave eaten or not? Then, why must I give it so much importance? I will do what Ifeel is right. I know my life best, I know what is right and what is wrong. You don’tneed to tell me what is right. Who are you to judge me? Who are you?Today, because I am working the night shift, so many women are able to get homesafe in the night. Those women and I know what my job means.Voice OverSuvarna: We must support women and let them go out, explore the world. Unlessthey step out, they won’t learn anything, they won’t learn the ways of the world.Women who are always holed up at home and protected from everything startcrying the second something goes wrong in the real world. They don’t know how todeal with difficulties or situations. The helpless can make them follow any man whooffers them even some support. But, women like us, who go out, won’t do that. Wewould give such men a tight slap, because we are not innocent kids who don’t knowthe ways of the world. We don’t need them to ‘rescue’ us, we’ve seen enough of theworld.I have always believed that one must never follow a man. One must be so far aheadin life that the man has to follow you. I might not be earning much, but I am veryhappy. I earn for myself and not for anyone else. I am not dependent on others formy existence right now, nor will I ever be. I have saved enough for my future. I havenever believed that my son or his wife will take care of me in my old age. And I amnot even going to tell anyone how much money I have saved. It is none of theirbusiness. Whether I am having fun with this money or donating it to a charity,society doesn’t have the right to ask me, in my belief. This is for my future.Voice OverDilip: Earlier, she didn’t know Mumbai too well so she would be scared to step out.Even if she had to go to Dadar, Sion or wherever, she would be clueless, she had noexperience. But, now after her work, her experience has increased. She has evendone election duty and helped conduct polls in Antop Hill, a very dangerous area inMumbai, working till 2-3am. That is how her courage has grown. She had to face somany difficulties and dangers, but she didn’t dither even once. This is how she hasgained rich experience.Voice OverDilip: The uniform is outside the house. When she is donning the uniform, she mustexert the influence and power that it carries. But when she is at home, she must liveby the rules of the house.Voice OverSuvarna: When I first came here, I felt, this house, my children, I should never leavethis and go anywhere at all. And that all that I do should be for them. But then,wherever I look, I see how children are dumping their parents, they don’t take careof them. Over the years, I’ve learned this much at least: everything has a place inlife, be it family or anything. But one must live for one’s own self. I have livedenough for others. I got married and lived for my husband, then lived for mychildren. But, where is my life in all this? So, if I am still not living my own life, afterhaving lived for everyone else, what is the point of my existence? Then, my life is azero. That’s why, I want to do something for myself.Voice OverSuvarna: I have changed a lot. I was not so forward before this. (Laughs)I had never seen Bombay before I got married, so I was content being the lioness ofmy area. But, now, I feel like I am the lioness of Mumbai too.This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.