Sucharita Nandi, who turned 18 in November, cast her first vote on Monday at St. Mary’s Orphanage and Day School in Dum Dum. What did she vote for? Safety for herself, her mother and women like them.

Flaunting fresh ink on her index finger, the first-year English honours student told Metro just why.

What bothers me as I come out to vote for the first time today is my safety on the road and that of my mother (Lakshmi Nandi, homemaker) and all women like her and me. That is not a concern for boys my age or their parents. 

My mother is tense till I return home. So, I have to be back by 6pm on days that I don’t have tuitions after college. And honestly, I too feel safer at home than on the streets of my city.

But should it be like that? 

While returning home from college or even going somewhere close to my house, I have to keep my mother updated about my movements, otherwise she gets all worked up. At times when I am unable to take calls, say in class, there are multiple missed calls from her. As soon as we connect, the first thing she asks me is if I am safe. I can feel the fear in her voice.
In today’s Calcutta, her fear — and my fear — is not unfounded.

One day near the Dum Dum rail bridge around 7pm, as I was walking down the road, a man misbehaved with two girls. I was just behind them. It could have been me also. 

Recently a Presidency University student was harassed on the road because she was wearing shorts. How does anyone have a right to decide what a woman wears? I should have the freedom to wear what I feel comfortable in.

As told to Jhinuk Mazumdar; picture by Amit Datta