Livelihood Strategies and the Experience of Urban Development: the Case of Women Workers in Resettlement Colonies in Mumbai

A prominent feature of urban development in the present era is the forced eviction of communities living in informal settlements to make space for infrastructural projects. The research project looks at the livelihood strategies adopted by women in the Lallubhai Compound, a resettlement colony in Mumbai, to navigate the effects of their displacement due to the urban development project. Since the social norms relegate women to the household, their unpaid labour inside the house to sustain the family is often not recognised or acknowledged. However, women bear the major brunt in the event of a crisis such as displacement. The strategies adopted by women to cope with the effects of displacement, which is spread across their paid and unpaid work in the informal sector, are in effect subsidising the cost of labour of the people in the city. Thus, women contribute directly, through their paid work, and indirectly, through their life-sustaining social reproductive work, to the workforce of the city. However, this significant contribution made to Mumbai’s urban development by women living in resettlement colonies and navigating the impacts of the cycle of displacement and resettlement is not being recognised.

Faculty Supervisor:

Judy Fudge

Student:

Partner:

University of Mumbai

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Public Service, Policy, and Governance; Other

University:

McMaster University

Program: