[Reader-list] Women and their Spatial Narratives in the City of Ahmedabad

[mmdesai]

Women and their Spatial Narratives in the City of Ahmedabad

Posting V

 

I have realized over the years that gender and the built environment of research faces certain inherent resistance from people. Most believe that discrimination against women is a thing of the past. "Hey, this is the twenty first century. What are you going on and on about?" They all seem to ask, directly or indirectly. There is a dichotomy here that needs to be addressed. On one hand, constitutionally gender equality is accepted and taken for granted, on the other hand, however, it is not a total picture of the reality in the Indian society. The social roles and work division, issues of domestic and other violence, women's safety (visual and physical) in public realm is some of the causes for concern in the urban areas. I feel it is important to create awareness and to have the willingness to open one's mind to include these issues in policy making like earlier concerns such as environmental protection and being sensitive to the needs of the handicapped people.

 

Without gender sensitivity, the built landscape is commonly accepted as a neutral background, even though; it is not value free. Most men and women designers, in addition, strongly believe in the neutrality of the profession and the self, choosing to describe and view themselves as gender neutral, the women preferring to call themselves 'architects' and not 'women' architects. In an attempt to be "mainstream", most women architects stay away from 'women's issues' for fear of being labeled feminists or not being accepted as a 'true' professional. This makes us take the situation for granted, adding to the marginalization of the subject and its solutions. 

 

Extreme forms of violence such, as dowry deaths, domestic abuses and foeticide are visible forms of discrimination towards women. However, what we are referring to here are invisible, often subtle, forms of conditioning, imbalances and inequalities as a whole in the society. They moderate the relationship and connection between gender and the built environment.

 

In my Sarai project, I am beginning to work at the other end now. After doing questionnaires of individual women (that continues), now I am trying to get the broad picture at the level of the city of Ahmedabad. I have been meeting planners. By law, it is mandatory for the city to have a woman Mayor every 3rd term. The Municipal council has to have one-third women representatives. But because of the situation mentioned above, I am not sure how aware they are of the gender issues at city level. I am planning to meet the woman Mayor and the councilors.

 

However, on a positive note, during the above-mentioned efforts, I came across this publication that lifted my spirits. Its called "A City Tailored to Women: The Role of Municipal Governments in Achieving Gender Equality", 2004 Edition. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the Women in the City Program (Montreal) have published it.

 

They promote looking at women as a special category and have categorized them as follows to provide services at the city level: children, mothers, professional women, single parents, elderly women, etc. They are trying to: 

1.     Increase women's participation in leadership roles

2.     Create partnership and dialogue between women's groups and city municipality

3.     Ensure civic participation of women

4.     Take women's safety initiatives

 

The booklet lists some of the successful efforts (best practices) made by municipalities from all over the world such as:

 

1.     Running women only buses at rush hours (like the train bogy in Mumbai)

2.     Gender training programs for municipal staff

3.     Make childcare more available to working women

4.     Housing project by and for women

5.     Training women to participate in local elections

 

 

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050527/4552c475/attachment.html