Thread by @MirnaGuha

Today, I will try my hand at live tweeting insights from "A #Home of One's Own", a two-day #researchworkshop on socially & economically #marginalised women's experiences of and negotiations with #genderinequalities in #informalurbanhousing in India.

This workshop has been organised by #JadavpurUniversity (School of Women's Studies), #RabindraBharathiUniversity (Centre for Women's Studies) and #Parichiti, a women's organisation. All three are research partners on a #GCRF project funded by @GoldsmithsUoL.

Since Oct 2018, I have collaborated with Dr. Henrike Donner, who is leading it, to develop #researchcollaborations with #educational and #development organisations in India to implement a pilot study on #genderurbanhousing. This workshop marks the end of the first phase.

Today, #researchpartners will share findings from the #pilotstudy conducted with women living in #slums and #informalhousing across Kolkata. This will be interspersed with #panels where academics and activists from #Delhi and #Mumbai will join us to share their work.

This is what the two-day schedule looks like. Delighted to be presenting a paper from my #phdresearch on day two - on #household compositions of women in full-time #sexwork in #redlightareas in Kolkata.

Counting down to the inaugural address by Dr. Henrike Donner at 11am. #genderurbanhousing

And we are off! Prof. Nandita Dhawan from the School of Women's Studies, #JadavpurUniversity, welcomes the audience and talks about the opportunities and challenges of international # research collaborations.

Dr Henrike Donner, Reader (Anthropology) @GoldsmithsUoL discusses her work (since '94) on gender and kinship, urban restructuring and politics in Kolkata, and shares the aims of the Global Challenges Research Fund #GCRF.

Dr. Donner discusses #housing issues in the lives of #marginalisedwomen globally and how this speaks to the #UNSDGs.

Prof. Swati Ghosh, Centre for Women's Studies #RabindraBharatiUniversity describes Rajabazar - site of their #pilotstudy on #genderurbanhousing w.r.t history & settlement of minorities, changing political importance, #housingstructures & complex tenancy relations

#Scarcity of #space and personal time, restrictions on #mobility, frequency of #domesticabuse & growing use of #digital #apps emerge as prelim themes from data collected from women in slum dwellings in Rajabazar. #genderurbanhousing

Interesting discussions on a #footballclub formed by young Muslim women in the locality - how does this negotiate with gender norms, affect lives and mobility within the locality, and relations with family members. #genderandsport #genderurbanhousing

In the first panel of the day, Dr. Manisha Priyam from the National University for #Educational #Planning and #Administration, New Delhi discusses the lives of women in relation to livelihoods and access to water in Sangam Vihar in #SouthDelhi.

Dr. Priyam discuss differential #power #relations between women in Sangam Vihar w.r.t access to #naturalresources and #infrastructure viz. #water and #toilets. Fascinating insights on the "own politics" (Ortner, 1995) of a #marginalised community.

discusses*

Sandhya Gautam from the Centre for Health and Social Justice, N. Delhi discusses the implementation of a #mobile #application with marginalised women on #maternal health. Highlights how timely data collection & analysis strengthens advocacy efforts & hold state actors accountable

Setting up for the last panel of the day. Prof. Nishi Mitra (1st from right) kicked things off by discussing the case study of the M-ward in #Mumbai - #housingrights (or lack of) for female #slum #dwellers and experiences of everyday #gendered #violence in their lives.

Prof. Mitra and #TISS will be joining us as a research partner in the second phase of the project! #researchcollaborations

Jameela Begum Eathakula, from the #GharBachaoGharBanao (Save homes build homes) movement speaks movingly & powerfully of her experience of having her home demolished by the #BMC in 2004 - this birthed the movement & the demand for #slumrehabilitation by the Mumbai government. ✊🏽

The panel and day ends with a fascinating discussion by Neera Adarkar from the #WomenArchitectsForum Mumbai on #gender sensitive #urban planning and establishing a #pedagogy to infuse gender awareness into training future architects. #genderurbanhousing

Starting day #two with a panel where our #researchpartners Prof. Nandita Dhawan (#JadavpurUniversity School of Women's Studies) and Sanchali (representing #Parichiti) discuss preliminary findings from their #pilotstudies on #genderurbanhousing.

Prof. Dhawan discusses her previous research on #domestic violence & #marriage where women are faced with a choice between #legalrights & family & community support. An oppositional binary of citizen & family member is constructed for the #marginalisedwomen encountering #gbv.

Site for JU's pilot study - a slum in Vidhan Nagar in Salt Lake, a designated #smartcity locality. How do women in the slums negotiate patriarchal expectations & #GBV? How does this happen against a backdrop where #urbanpoor are considered an impediment to #SmartCities in India

Discussions among the audience about different #propertyregimes across varied #informalhousing structures in cities and across cities too e.g #Mumbai and #Kolkata. This affects #genderrelations w.r.t tenancy agreements and #rights.

Prof. Mitra from #TISS raises a #methodological inquiry: given the #legality and #illegality of #informalhousing , how do we protect communities and researchers? How do we think of #ethics and #representation of communities that live in #precarious #socialhousing?

Dr @Rimplemehta from #TISS suggests that the formulation of #ethics needs to involve the #communities we are researching. They need to be involved in this process of thinking about boundaries and #representation.

Sanchali Sarkar from #Parichiti present prelim findings from their #pilotstudy with women in #informalhousing in Shahid Smriti and China Mandir. Reveals how #propertyownership and rights for women are entangled in complex #gender & #kinship relations.

Women make claims to property in different ways: brothers are rarely challenged w.r.t property entitlements - "Don't want to disturb him" - women often relinquish #rights. Audience members discuss how sibling disputes in #natalhouseholds over property transcend #class in India.

I present my #phdresearchfindings on the #household compositions of full-time female sex workers in Kalighat and Sonagachi. Women in the #redlightareas draw from and subvert middle-class #patriarchal norms on #domesticity - fictive kin and consanguineal bonds exist in tension.

Comments from the audience on how this expands the idea of what constitutes a "home" and "households" and notions of #legality and #illegality in this regard. Violence in relations from #households from outside the #RLA affects #households within.

The final panel of the workshop ends with Dr. @Rimplemehta from #TISS who shares her scholarship on #Bangladeshi women in #Indian prisons- tracing a journey of 'criminality' from home to the prison. This unsettles categories of #home #nationhood and #belonging as #urbanpoor....

..women are labelled 'Bangladeshi' despite being Indian citizens. Highlights how #marginalisedwomen exist in liminal space between legality and illegality - on issues of #citizenship.

The #twoday workshop on #genderurbanhousing ends with a round table with speakers and collaborators on the way forward, identification of dominant #researchthemes, and a joyful group photo!

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