Abstract
In this chapter, we attempt to show how gender accentuates the conditions of urban informality and precarity, how gender and masculinity play out—with respect to urban spaces, migration, work, mobility, the idea of home and identity, and their interplay with labour, lives and the everyday state—explored on the axes of spatiality and (ii) legality; the private and the public sphere; and the formal and the informal. How women’s work/contribution gets invisiblized, but their presence/bodies get hyper-visiblized, all at once, making them more vulnerable; or how gender-equity enshrined in the SGD framework is a far cry—when it comes to their labour, rights or of collective bargaining and unionization, are important aspects that the field opens us to. While attempting to understand gender and urban spaces, we investigate whether the city actually improves the quality of life for everyone? For this, one must understand the qualitative difference between ‘city spaces’ and ‘village spaces’ for rural–urban migrants—are they better off, in terms of conditions, security, safety of women and violence against them? Or is there a multi-layered, system of exclusion—spatial, legal (state-administered), gendered, caste-based and even based on ‘urban aesthetics’. This calls in for radical community/member-based mobilization and participation by all stakeholders to make city spaces more inclusive and less precarious for the informal labourers—especially the women.
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Notes
- 1.
Jitender (who was 17 when I first met him) is one of my primary respondents I met on 2nd April 2017 in Rohini (From Samaypur Badli Metro station) as a battery rickshaw driver who owns the rickshaw on rent. The family (includes 2 younger sisters and a younger brother) stays in a rented Kuchha plot near Rithala metro station; the mother and elder sister are engaged in domestic work—in several households). He lost his father (who was a cycle rickshaw puller) in January 2016 as a result of being allegedly drugged, looted and murdered. I even visited their village in UP to understand their subjective preferences and comparison between city and village life.
- 2.
Deepa is 28 years old, first interviewed in Oct 2016, and consequently interviewed her parents, husband and kids. She stays with her husband, parents and kids in a slum in Majnu K Tila, the mother and daughter make (curate) the jewellery at home and sell it at the Vishwa Vidyalaya metro station while the father sells belts and wallets at the same place.
- 3.
Ramlal is a cycle rickshaw puller, 68 years old; he has been in Delhi for last 50 years; has his native village in Bulandshehar, UP; earns only Rs. 4000—and rides rickshaw mostly around Asaf Ali road in Delhi where he sleeps and carries out all his routine activities. He was interviewed on 7/08/2016.
- 4.
Rampal, 32, from Bihar has been pulling cycle rickshaw in Delhi (in the Vishwavidyalay metro station premises) since 8 years and has left his wife and family back in the village in Gopalganj, Bihar. He was interviewed on the 3rd of May, 2017.
- 5.
Rakesh (27), is a battery rickshaw driver in the Vishwavidyalay metro station premises. I interviewed him on 25th Jan, 2017. He is otherwise from Jharkhand but is living in Delhi with his wife. They live in a basti near camp road
- 6.
Members of Rashtriya Path Vikretha Sangh—Ashwini (President), Mahavir, Gaurav, Mohit, Tarun in a group discussion, as documented on August 2017 who are street vendors in Connaught Place inner circle; whom I first met while they were protesting against making CP a vehicle free zone.
- 7.
Shobha, woman vendor from Rajasthan, whose husband is differently-abled, sells handicraft bags, door mats and other decorated textile material in CP along with her mother-in-law was first interviewed by me in Sept 17.
- 8.
Ashok Kumar, is the convener of Shahri Adhikar Manch and founder of Beghar Samgharsh Committee. He was first interviewed by me on World Homeless Day on 10th October 2017.
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Bhatia, A., Joshi, D.U. (2020). Urban Informality, Gender and Exclusion in India. In: Joshi, D., Brassard, C. (eds) Urban Spaces and Gender in Asia. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36494-6_8
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