A woman working for a skincare company returns home to Kamalgazi, on the southern fringes of Calcutta, from a Salt Lake mall late at night.

From lack of public transport and the constant male gaze to the occasional bad touch and catcalls, she listed the perils of travelling at night.

Many women in the city work late into the night — healthcare and hospitality professionals, event managers, IT personnel, journalists and many more.

The authorities have not done much to make their commute easier. People, especially men but not men alone, have still not been able to appreciate that women have as much right to return late from work or from anywhere else as men. Many face the same problems night in and night out.

Many among them stepped out on the roads at night on Wednesday to assert that they would not let these problems define them.

Here’s one woman’s account:

I have to visit multiple stores in the city. I look after branding and have regular customer interactions. Our store (in a mall in Salt Lake) closes at 9.30pm. By the time I leave, it is close to 10.

I take a Metro up to Bengal Chemical. I take a bus to Dhalai Bridge (near Garia) and then take an auto that drops me near home.

After 10pm, buses are few. You have to wait a long time if you miss one and you do not know if the next will come at all. If you are lucky, you might get a bus in 15 minutes. If not, it might take 30 or more.

There are days when I am very tired or in a rush to reach home. I then book an app cab. But it costs me around ₹400. Public transport costs me ₹31.

The wait in a deserted bus stop is not always comfortable.

I have to wear decent clothes and be presentable because I deal with customers for my company. In the store, I am confident in carrying myself. But on the road, I often feel vulnerable.

Every now and then, a biker would make a pass at me. Most of them would offer a ride. Others would make worse comments.

On the bus, which is reasonably crowded even at night, men far outnumber women. On many occasions, I have been the lone woman on the bus for most of the distance.

The bus journey takes around 40 minutes. It is an ordeal. For almost the entire ride, I can sense a hundred eyes staring at me. While standing, especially if the bus is crowded, I experience bad touch routinely. I make it a point to protest every time.

If I get to sit beside a male passenger, I have to be even more vigilant.

“Thik korey bosun (sit properly),” is a phrase I have used countless times. More than once, I have had co-passengers stinking of alcohol.

I am not saying every male passenger is the same. But it is also true that I have seen men across age groups act like perverts. It is funny how something as simple as returning home from work has completely different meanings for men and women.