‘The day a daughter can walk home alone at night’: Kriti Sanon raises alarm over women’s safety

Actor Kriti Sanon on Sunday raised concerns over women’s safety, using a Daughter’s Day message to draw attention to the fear and precautions that continue to shape women’s everyday lives. From sharing live locations and carrying pepper spray to booking cabs instead of walking, Sanon said measures meant for personal safety had effectively become part of women’s routine.

In her social media post, Sanon asked people to imagine their daughter calling to say she believed she was being followed by men, walking home at night while repeatedly looking over her shoulder, or having her phone battery die before she reached home. She urged people to reflect on how commonplace such anxieties had become rather than accepting them as an unavoidable part of women’s lives.

‘Now let that sink in’

“This Daughter’s Day, imagine your daughter calling you saying, ‘I think I’m being followed by some men’. Imagine her walking home alone at night, constantly looking over her shoulder. Imagine her phone dying before she reaches home. Now let that sink in…,” Sanon wrote.

The actor then listed several precautions women routinely take while travelling or spending time outside their homes. Sharing a live location with family or friends, carrying pepper spray, choosing a cab instead of walking and staying on a phone call while commuting, she suggested, had become normalised responses to concerns over personal safety.

Sanon’s message shifted the focus of Daughter’s Day away from celebratory posts towards the question of whether women enjoy the freedom to occupy public spaces without fear. She argued that safety should not depend on women continuously changing their behaviour, routes, clothes or mode of transport to reduce perceived risks.

Freedom without fear

Sanon said Daughter’s Day would acquire greater meaning when women could walk home alone at night, spend time in a park after dark and use public transport without being afraid. She also stressed that women should be able to choose what they wear or simply be present in a public space without having to constantly assess the possibility of being assaulted.

“The day a daughter can walk home alone at night, sit in a park after dark, wear whatever the hell she wants, take public transport without fear, or simply exist in a public space without calculating the risk of being assaulted… That is the day we should celebrate Daughter’s Day,” she wrote.

Her remarks drew attention to an aspect of women’s safety that goes beyond reported crimes — the everyday decisions women make because of the possibility of harassment or violence. Such precautions can determine when they travel, which routes they take and whether they choose to walk or rely on other forms of transport.

‘The world we owe them’

Sanon concluded her message by referring to another familiar practice — women informing their families or friends once they have safely reached their destination. She expressed hope that a time would come when daughters would no longer feel compelled to provide such reassurance simply because they had travelled alone.

“To every daughter who has ever called home and said, ‘I’ve reached’. May you one day live in a world where you don’t have to… That is the world our daughters deserve! And that is the world we owe them!” she wrote.

The actor’s intervention came amid a wider public conversation over women’s safety and access to public spaces. By framing the issue around ordinary experiences rather than exceptional circumstances, Sanon used her Daughter’s Day message to question why precautions driven by fear had come to be treated as a normal part of women’s lives.