Not just men, MCGM also gets 'what women want' wrong

What do women want mdash a question that has perplexed humanity for ages supposedly has been braved by the Revised Draft Development Plan RDDP 2034 In a first the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai MCGM which is seeking suggestions on the RDDP from the public till July 29 has introduced a section titled Gender Special Groups and Social Equity in which it hopes to customise Mumbai to the needs of its female population The provisions in this section include multipurpose housing for working women 1000 sq m area in each administrative ward vending hawking areas specially for women public toilets and an adhar kendra 500 sq m in each electoral wardThe RDDP 2034 proposes a departure from gender blindness to gender mainstreaming states the introduction to the section Urban planners and womens groups have called the move a step in the right direction but suspect the said provisions will not be implemented in their true spirit After all the earlier Draft Development Plan made public in February 2015 was met with staunch criticism including for its lack of gender planning by over 250 organisations Now the drafts overall objective is clear To make women a much larger proportion of Mumbais work force by providing opportunities that enhance their happy experience of working and living in MumbaiAt the outset this is a great move However the RDPP conceptualises gender as participation in the workforce only says Hussain Indorewala assistant professor at Kamala Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture Environmental Studies Juhu But there are dimensions to gender planning such as leisure and safety which have not been discussed in the RDPP he continuesUrban planners at Urban Design Research Institute UDRI who have been deliberating on the DP for the last eight years are unsure that the 10point objectives and the eight provisions are enough Stating that the threeandahalf pages allocated to gender in the twovolume 800odd page RDDP is nothing more than mere tokenism a member of UDRI states Right from a watereddown understanding of gender Married women with small children should be able to go to work to the lack of nuance in the provisions The city should provide a host of services there is a lot to be desired in the DP 2034 the mere allocation of space is not gender planning Experts say that the challenge to comprehensive gender planning is the absence of enough women in the planning committeeNot just mommiesCare centres adhar kendras and women skill centres promised in each ward is a pretty big step agree experts It may not mean much for the urban elite but for lower income groups this could go a long way But here is the primary struggle mdash all women do not want the same thing Dr Armida Fernandez founder trustee at Society for Nutrition Education and Health Action SNEHA says We talk about women in general but it is hard for women to come together These provisions will have to be modified across the city in each ward She adds Whenever we think of centres like these we develop those in areas where space is available Instead we have to do a need assessment in the cityBoys playing in Bengalipura a small slum pocket in Wadala Here young girls avoid playing outside Creating open spaces say experts makes little sense to women if they arent safe free of alcoholics drug addicts and street sexual harassers PicPukarIt is easy to plan but difficult to maintain these centres she says SNEHA which has run centres such as these in lowincome communities and informal settlements in Ghatkopar Dharavi and Govandi has found that these are most successful when women take ownership These are potential oases for women and children they get information on health a room for youth to study or counselling in cases of domestic violence mdash but only if the women say they want it We found much success with a cregraveche we ran in Kumbharwada Dharavi where they would leave their children and pick them up after work This cregraveche was run along with local women mdash something the MCGM might want to keep in mind Without community ownership women think it is sarkaari not ours says FernandezThe RDDPs thrust on workforce participation has blindsided several other infrastructural amenities for other categories of women What about homemakers and single mothers Dr Nandita Shah codirector of Akshara says that in Mumbai there are a large number of single parent families where women run the household Their struggle is more intense We need to know how their needs can be addressed she says adding that RDDPs proposal to have womens hostels in every ward is a positive stepAnother group of women whose say matters is homemakers Womens workforce participation as stated in the RDDP was at 1638 in 2011 says a young urban planner With such a low workforce participation women spend more time at home and commute by foot to places nearby whether it is the market or a school With so much pedestrian activity instead of building flyovers we need to focus on safety of women pedestrians she says She recalls an incident in Kurla in 2012 when a line of water tankers parked in a lane became the adda for men to gather around The result women were molested as they passed by even during the day These tankers were parked there because traffic density has increased and lanes are being used as parking space mdash something the DP draft does not address she saysUDRI observes that with FSI increase as proposed by the RDDP and the rise of SRAs which seem like vertical slums the condition of women is doubly sore When people suffer women suffer the most says the UDRI member Imagine an SRA building with no water supply such as that of Lallubhai Compound in Mankhurd says an urban planner from UDRI Usually the woman is given the task of fetching water and that applies even if she has to go up and down a highrise he saysSocial mindsets need to changeWe must remember that the RDDP is meant for physical transformation of the city and not a social one says Indorewala His words resonate at Bengalipura a small slum pocket in Wadala where young girls avoid playing outside Its the same issue in Dharavis Indira Nagar The reason Parents feel that these open spaces are unsafe for their daughters There are a lot of alcoholics drug addicts and street sexual harassers in our area How do you expect to send our girls out a concerned parent informed Afsana Khatoon Mehboob 19 a Barefoot researcher with NGO Pukar who was doing a study on the lack of open spaces for childrenNandita ShahThe girls too said theyd only prefer playing outside if they had adequate security But why are we putting restrictions on girls when someone else is actually the problem Society at large has never let women be who they are says Manasi Pinto programme facilitator Pukar Whats the point of allotting centres only for women when right outside these spaces women will still continue to feel threatened she asksSameera Khan coauthor of Why Loiter Women amp Risk on Mumbai Streets published in 2011 by Penguin India says that though Mumbai is a relatively friendlier city for women they still have to negotiate to access public space Women who give the appearance of being out without a clear purpose are not particularly encouragedNeha Singh founder of the Why Loiter movement which started in 2014 as an offshoot of the book agrees Singh and her team of girls would deliberately move out after midnight only to receive cold stares from women and leering looks from men The idea was that women in spaces become such a regular sighting that people dont find it odd says Singh adding that instead they found themselves struggling within these spaces I think mindsets need to change for any such planning to achieve complete successShah says that the recognition of gender in the RDDP is a positive step The fact that gender has got a special mention in RDDP in itself is a big deal We have worked very hard to get land allocated Now we have to ensure that all of this does not stay on paper