SAPNE MERE, BHAVISHYA MERA

SAPNE MERE, BHAVISHYA MERA

Assessing the Needs of Women Informal Workers in Gurugram, India to Build a Sustainable Future

Participatory Research In Asia

Prepared under the project "Women's Consortium for and by Women: Reclaiming Space, Voice, Agency", supported by The Embassy of the Netherlands in India.

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1.0 Introduction

In 2018, 465 million of India's 512 million-strong labour force were employed. Of that, a very high proportion of the participating labour force (around 92%) works in the informal sector. The workforce comprises less than 25% women, and 94% of these working women are engaged in the informal sector. The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown has had an unprecedented impact on the lives of these women informal workers, many of whom are migrants and the sole economic supporters of their families.

A study with 92 women informal domestic workers during the Covid-19 pandemic in India reveals the socio-economic, health, and gender impact of the lockdown on migrant workers employed in informal work. The stress of job insecurity, health risks, and exposure to sexual harassment, abuse, and violence in the confined spaces of the households which are their workplaces weighs heavy on their lives. They want to envision and live a different future.

Sapne Mere, Bhavishya Mera, an initiative of PRIA in association with Martha Farrell Foundation, aspires to support the social and economic dreams of vulnerable women informal workers who are primarily working as migrant domestic workers, by setting up a Resource and Support Centre in Harijan Basti, an informal urban settlement in the city of Gurugram, Haryana, India. The Resource and Support Centre is envisioned as a safe space for the women and their adolescent girl children, and a common point where all service-related information of government schemes and programs for informal workers can be made available. It is envisaged the Centre will be run by women from the community, trained to run a social enterprise, for women in their community. Aware of various social issues like gender-based violence and sexual harassment that constrain their agency to lead full lives, and capacitated to demand rights and entitlements that are needed to make their dreams come true, these women are attempting to build a resilient, safe and secure future ? for themselves and their families.

A Needs Assessment Survey conducted with informal migrant women workers in February 2021 shows us the way forward in setting up such a Resource and Support Centre in Gurugram.

We asked 146 women migrant workers living in Harijan Basti what kind of Resource and Support Centre they wanted. This is what they told us:

The women clearly expressed the need for the Resource and Support Centre to be a clean, hygienic, safe space, which they feel comfortable visiting.

It was very important for them to know the physical location of the Resource and Support Centre in order to access the services.

The Centre needs to act as an information hub, providing information about various government schemes, and health related information on adolescent healthcare, child healthcare, pre- and post-natal healthcare, mental health, etc. They also want information related to good but affordable schools where they can send their children to get a decent education.

The women workers want to get connected to better employment opportunities and learn new skills like a beautician course, advanced cooking, and business management skills to start their own business.

Those women who have not attended school want an adult learning centre where they can learn the basics of spoken English and Hindi, and to read and write at least till the primary level.

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They want the Resource and Support Centre to provide legal aid to support them in filing a sexual harassment complaint and/or a case of domestic violence.

The Centre can also be a space for collectivizing and forming self-help groups.

2.0 Methodology

The Needs Assessment Survey used three community engaged methods to collect data ? transect walk, informal discussions and a mobile-based survey. Data was collected through women community animators, who are also residents of the community. Prior to carrying out the survey, the community animators were trained. The training oriented them about the goals and objectives of the project and the purpose of conducting the survey. The animators learnt how to ask key questions, how to personally interact with the respondents, and use the mobile phone based questionnaire created as a Google form.

2.1 Transect Walk A transect walk is a valuable exercise in Participatory Research, which requires members of the community to walk through different areas of their locality and record specific observations. Initial discussions with the women living in Harijan Basti had revealed that they were not aware of their settlement and their community members. The community animators mobilised women informal workers for the transect walk:

To know the community holistically To map out the various services and resources available in the community To get familiar with diverse community members by interacting with them The women who participated in the transect walk counted the number of buildings, noted where the essential services shops are located, and mapped their houses in different lanes and bylanes. The transect walk resulted in a detailed map of their settlement.

Participatory Map of Harijan Basti co-created with Women Domestic Workers

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2.2 Informal Discussions

Personal interaction and informal discussions in groups helped women share their lived experiences and challenges of living in Harijan Basti and working as domestic help. Several shared their journey of migration, experiences at their workplaces, how the pandemic had affected their lives, their living conditions, how unsafe they feel, and their fears for their adolescent daughters. Semi-structured questions were useful in facilitating these discussions.

2.3 Mobile-Based Survey

The Needs Assessment Survey attempts to primarily understand the women's outlook to alternative job opportunities, skills they want to learn, and what they want from the Resource and Support Centre that the project seeks to establish. The respondents were asked to answer questions about their lives as informal migrant women workers, challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, safety concerns, job insecurities, access to health services, and their future aspirations. The survey questionnaire was co-created along with a few domestic workers after an initial visualising workshop.

3.0 Profile of Women Domestic Workers Living in Harijan Basti

Suchitra (41), who hails from West Bengal, has been living in Harijan Basti for the last 20 years. Married at the age of 14. A mother at the age of 16. A widow at 19, when her alcoholic husband died.

She says her life was happier when she was a child. Her father worked in a factory, earning well, so he could afford to educate her. After her father's death, when her uncle became her guardian, she was married off to a very poor family who used to physically abuse her. She heard about job opportunities in Gurgaon (as it was then called) from her neighbours in the village, and she fled her abusive in-laws with her young sons. She was just 21 years old.

Her first job was as a cook and she continues to work as one. After 20 years of experience, she is considered an `expert' cook. She has made lot of contacts in the community, connecting newcomers to the Basti with employment opportunities as domestic workers in the nearby condominiums.

A single parent, she took care of her sons, but now lives alone as both her sons have abandoned her and gone back to the village. During the lockdown she was not paid for a few months and faced shortages of food and money. She doesn't want to go back to her village ever, and aspires to start a business of her own.

Salma (32) is also from West Bengal. She migrated with her husband seven years ago. Her husband works as a security guard and she works as a domestic worker doing jhadu-pochha (cleaning, sweeping and mopping) in three houses. She was a housewife when she first came, but the burden and expenses of a life in the city forced her to seek work outside her home. Her pay is far less compared to that of a cook. She reaches her first workplace at 7.00 a.m. and comes back home at 1 p.m. She cooks food for herself and her family, eats, washes clothes, and cleans her own house before setting out again at 4.00 p.m. for the second round of cleaning in the houses where she works.

She lives with her husband and son in one room, which has an attached kitchen but no ventilation. She uses a common toilet. Salma admits her life is tough. She rarely gets to spend time with her son and

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