They call it Rapist Lane, this short stretch of street in Bangalore near the Srishti School of Art and Design. It earned that nickname because after dark, men tend to hang out here in their cars or with their motorbikes, drinking and harassing or molesting women who dare to pass.
Like so many of India’s public spaces, it is a place where encounters between strangers can be tense and scary, where a figure in the shadows can quickly become an assailant, where women regard men with justifiable fear.
