In warmer months, cities come alive. Parks are full, trains are more crowded, and nightlife pulses later into the evening. But for women, this seasonal freedom often comes with an unspoken caveat: Stay vigilant.
While in Tokyo recently, I boarded a city train and noticed something familiar: carriages marked “women only.” I smiled in recognition. Trains in India, where I’m from, have had similar carriages for decades. Later that day, during a session at Expo 2025 on “Civic Technology for Women-Friendly Cities,” an audience member shared that his wife had been groped on a train. I told him I wasn’t surprised. I’ve heard that story in Mumbai, Manila, New York, and Nairobi.
I carry one myself.
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About the author
ElsaMarie D’Silva
ElsaMarie D’Silva is the founder of Red Dot Foundation and creator of Safecity, a global platform that does data crowdsourcing on gender-based violence to inform safer cities. She is an Aspen New Voices fellow, Yale World fellow, and a visiting fellow at the Centre for Protecting Women Online, Open University UK.
