Feminist Alliance Trust (FEMAT), a Delhi-based nonprofit organization working on women’s rights and gender justice, in collaboration with Dwarka Collective, a social group consisting of residents of Dwarka, Delhi organized a Women’s Safety Audit-cum-Awareness walk on 2nd October 2026 at 9 pm at Dwarka Sector 4, South-West Delhi. The walk was organized in solidarity with the nationwide call to reclaim public space as a mark of protest against the growing cases of rapes in the national capital of India. Announced impromptu, with barely one day to prepare and spread the word, we had a relatively strong participation. It was even more encouraging that several passersby women also ended up joining the walk as they saw us with our posters and placard.
We gathered at Ashirwad Chowk, Dwarka Sector 4 and marched towards Dwarka Sector 6 signal. Before starting the walk, FEMAT Founder Adv Dr Sanjukta Basu gave a brief introduction to women’s right to public space and spatial justice and also briefly spoke about basic laws which every women should be aware of including the right related to FIR, arrest and detention which are extremely relevant in the presnet time when the youth of the whole nation are rising in protests and facing police brutalities.
As we walked we raised slogans to demand our right to public space and freedom from patriarchay, sexual violence and gender-based violence. We also identified the areas where the street lights were not functioning leading to dark patches on the road. We observed that entire stretch of the road leading from Dwarka Sector 4 to Sector 6 and 10 market was completely dark with none of the street lights functioning thereby making the last mile connectivity risky for working women who commute via metro.
Gender, Public Space, women’s right to public space and spatial justice is one of the core themes of Feminist Alliance Trust. It is our belief that to end gender based violence, we must challenge the line that divides spatiality into public and private and the mindset that women’s true place is in the private sphere. It is only through safe and equal participation in the public sphere that women can truly gain their identity and feminist consciousness, build hopes and aspirations and fight for their rights and justice. As part of this theme FEMAT manages the Instagram page @GenderandPublicSpace through which we raise awareness on the topic.
It is our demand that streets and public spaces should not become “risky” for women after dark. Women must have the right to navigate these spaces without fear no matter what time of the day or night and it is the duty of the government to ensure that there are enough infrastructure to make the spaces safe. A well-lit city is the most basic infrastructure the government should provide and even that seems to be missing from Dwarka, Delhi.
The best part of the event was that participants who joined us on the way said that they have not seen any such campaigns or awareness in Dwarka before and they were happy that somebody had taken up the initiative.
A team of Delhi Police personnel including women police officers accompanied us as secutiry measure. A number of local and grassroot journalists also turned up and covered the walk.
At the end of the event, we decided that we will organize more such event and will stay focused on making Dwarka and Mahavir Enclave area safer for women and keep demanding women’s right to public spaces.
The event has now become a conversation started on Instagram with several women-residents of Dwarka, Delhi sharing about the other dark patches in Dwarka and their experience of walking through such dark roads without street lights.
FEMAT and Dwarka Collective have decided that this campaign would continue. We will conduct an safety-audit cum awareness walk across Dwarka and work towards making both Dwarka and adjoining areas such as Mahavir Enclave, Palam, Dabri, Ramphal Chawk among others safer.
Below are some of the photos and videos from the event.
