Our city’s streets do not fall silent even in the night; rather, it changes its rhythm, pace, and language. Under the dim glow of streetlights, shadows stretch longer, silent conversations begin, and the bustling city slows just enough to be noticed. A small group, often noticed to be women professionals and students, gathers, timid at first. There is the usual checking of phones, a quick glance at the ends of the street, and mindful calculation of safety. And then, led by a speaker or/and organiser, the members take measured steps forward.
For Ashmitha Athreya, head of operations and lead storyteller at Madras Inherited ( @madrasinherited on Instagram), the night walks they curate are as much about empowerment as they are about showing up after dusk. Conducted in early 2023 and 2025, in collaboration with The Equals Project and the Greater Chennai Corporation’s Gender and Policy Lab, the organisation’s ‘Madrasin Pengal’ walks were designed to foreground women’s histories. These are the stories that often remain peripheral in mainstream narratives of the city. “The very act of women walking together in the night, while exploring powerful stories of resistance, made it extremely special,” says Ashmitha.
The decision to hold the first walk in October 2023 exclusive to people identifying as women was intentional. It wasn’t just about safety but also about overwriting the deeply internalised idea that the night is not meant for them. “The intention was to break away from the ‘unsafe’ tag that is generally associated with women being out at night. It offered a space to foster deeper dialogues and discussions,” she adds.
Another organisation, The Equals Project (@the.equals.project on Instagram), founded by Shruthi Viswanathan, centres its night walk on accessing the city without any hindrance — of gender, of time, of mobility. “Night walks are also a way of claiming the space of the city. Spaces which are often not accessible to pedestrians, to women, to people with different abilities,” Shruthi points out.
Rewriting narratives
For the organisers, these thematically-designed night walks mean multiple recce, assessing how a neighbourhood transforms in the night hours, mapping well-lit arterial roads, and planning for contingencies. Police permissions has to be secured well in advance, with officers accompanying the group entirely during the walk, notes Ashmitha.
Shruthi believes that night walks are an “interesting concept” but the toll it takes to receive police approvals acts as a barrier in conducting them.
Additionally, the infrastructural gaps and the everyday disregard for pedestrian spaces, including footpaths claimed by parked bikes or piled with trash, underscore how walking itself remains a contested act. Shruthi explains, “Infrastructure, in general, around the city for walking needs to be upgraded. For walks and night walks to become more popular and more accessible, as citizens we also need to respect the right to walk and not just give primacy to cars and motorised vehicles all the time.”
Apart from the interval between these walks and the gaps that limit them from being held, the participants often speak of the experience as empowering. Not just because of the stories they hear, but because of the act itself — walking together at night, bonding, and the freedom to view their own city with a different lens in the dark.
These night walks help women reclaim the city’s space as their own. “For a group of women to walk in the city and to talk about the city at night is quite powerful,” shares Shruthi, adding that events where women claim the city at night and their own safety are important.
After the shutters come down
While some walks are rooted in assertion, others are built on noticing intricate details that are always there but we miss out. Thirupurasundari Sevvel, founder of Nam Veedu Nam Oor Nam Kadhai, has been experimenting with night walks since 2015, beginning in neighbourhoods like T Nagar, Chintadripet, Aminjikkarai, and Anna Nagar. “The approach was still similar to what we were already doing — looking at heritage, streets, and everyday life — but the experience was very different at night,” she says.
These walks dig deeply into sensory explorations. Walkers are encouraged to listen to the hum of a late-night street, to notice textures, to observe how a seemingly closed shop prepares to open, or how a street transforms after a certain hour. Sometimes, the walk is timed to arrive just as a food stall comes alive, the shift announced not by a guide, but by the aroma in the air.
In earlier collaborations, including one with Explore Differently, Thirupurasundari experimented with inclusive formats, wherein the team created model houses and sound recordings to make the experience feel complete.
Community, for her, remains central. Routes are planned not just with safety in mind, but along with informing residents, seeking consent for interactions, and allowing relationships to build over time. In some places, locals have begun to participate, even lead parts of the walk. Slowly, being present is doing its work. “When people see others already present in a space, especially women, it becomes easier for more women to join. That comfort builds gradually,” she notes.
Across these different approaches, the night walk emerges as something more than an event to get together. It becomes a lens. A way to see the city not as it is usually consumed, but the more unique colours, shades, and tastes it has to offer when the rush subsides.
And just like that the organisers are planning on editions of night walks for groups to gather under a streetlight soon. This time without a pause before the first step.
Thirupurasundari will conduct walks as a series this month. For details visit @namveedu_namoor_namkadhai on Instagram.