How Budget put a smile on the faces of planners in Mumbai | Mumbai News – Times of India
The Union Budget has brought cheer to members of an Advisory Committee on Gender in Mumbai. When finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced, “We will facilitate higher participation of women in the workforce by setting up working women hostels in collaboration with industries and establishment of creches”, it was as if she was reading from a script written here in Mumbai.
This plan to foster women’s participation through better facilities has been articulated in Development Plan (DP), 2024 of Mumbai, and is set to be realised following the construction of the first such pilot facility in the western suburbs. The overall objective, as stated in a chapter on gender in D is “to make women a much larger proportion of Mumbai’s workforce by providing opportunities that enhance their happy experience of working and living in Mumbai… Among the reasons making the participation of women difficult is lack of housing for single women, cost of housing, limited care facilities for children of married women and single mothers, lack of skills, market/vending space and training facilities for informal sector women workers, lack of public conveniences and adequate transport.”
The move to tackle these problems came about years ago with discussions among gender-sensitive civil society groups who focused on hurdles women face in pursuit of an active work life. Through a rigorous consultative process, for the first time in India, an urban development plan was crafted, specifying need for gender planning in reservations for land use and providing legal backing to facilitate implementation at the local level.
Essentially, six new amenities were planned
- First, multi-purpose working women housing in every ward, spanning categories such as working women from outside the city, single parents and students, divorcees, etc. with stay options of a single day, a week, one month, three months and one year. Destitute women could also be accommodated in case of domestic violence on emergency with police referral, for one night with a counselling facility.
- Second, childcare centres on a neighbourhood scale.
- Third, old age homes and old age day care centres in wards.
- Fourth, an Aadhaar Kendra with skill development centres in every ward for women who have taken a break from work or for women in informal sectors who need training to return to work with additional skills.
- Fifth, vending zones for women in the informal sector with 30% reservation in the markets.
- Sixth, convenience centres with toilet blocks, changing rooms, feeding rooms and rest rooms.
Targets were set by going vertical and by clubbing compatible amenities together. For example, the idea of a child care centre and old age home/old age day care centres in the same building was proposed to bring the old and young together in a common social space.
An Advisory Committee on Gender was formed under the Planning Department of the BMC, with members from the fields of gender, academics, architecture, urban planning, law and communication, and headed by a senior retired IAS officer. The committee identified potential plots for the amenities and worked on a pilot plot design.
Today, a 16-storey building stands tall in the western suburbs of Mumbai and is ready to welcome 180 working women to be housed along with a child care centre, skill development centre and old age day care centre. This BMC facility will be operated and maintained by a women self-help group. Five more such buildings are planned to be constructed from this year.
To take this unique effort to other cities, a ‘Framework for Inclusion of Gender Amenities in Development Plan’ has been submitted to the urban development department of Govt of Maharashtra. A pioneer in many urban concepts like town planning schemes and transit-oriented development through commercial usage of station space, Maharashtra has yet again taken a lead with another urban innovation, which offers lessons to the entire country.
(Prachi Merchant is a senior urban planner & team leader, Revised Mumbai Development Plan 2034. Dr Nandita Shah is a gender expert & co-director of Akshara Centre, Mumbai)
