Cities have the capacity of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, it is created by everybody.” – Jane Jacobs
While the idea of making cities with the participation of people sounds interesting, it depends a lot on who are these people who get to opinionate on how cities would be made. In order to decipher such an integral parameter, what could be crucial is the consideration of who use cities the most. We shall say all those who live in the urban utilize cities equally – but that is not always the scenario. There are limitations and breaches on who gets to even live in the cities, who gets to use the benefits and comforts that the city intends to provide. These intentions and considerations together sum up, in very colloquial means, The Right to the City. One of the fundamental means of everyday activism and tool of making sense of how you would want your city to look, shape and serve like – a very radical lens created by Henri Lefebvre and further elaborated by David Harvey. So as and when the idea of getting your rightful say and demand gets fulfilled, another quite critical juncture arrives when we need to figure out whose voices are channelized the most while constructing the spaces and places. It is quite natural for us to believe that everyone has equal awareness regarding what their right to the city is, yet that is hardly close enough to the reality.
What was the essence behind the walk?
The thing is, this right to the city corelates a lot with who has the power to imprint their right to the city on the ways in which cityscapes could be designed and delivered. This reiterates the same point once again, who then uses the city and how do we necessarily spot these differences. Applying a slightly different lens of diversity and an inverted lens of looking at things exposes several underlying power dynamics that a simple scope of Right to the City might not expose. This is exactly what the intention behind our initiative has been like. Gender community walks have been inspired from the idea of initiating conversations regarding how genders or identities that have been socially constructed by the existing and prevailing societies are trying to mitigate such stereotypes in order to break free of such everyday hustles in their own possible ways. Here in comes a lot of different concepts – the right to exist, the right to claim spaces, the right to be just the way you are and of course the right to speak about things that need to be Re-imagined. An intersectional approach was used to study what we know as public infrastructures – the very mundane roads, pedestrian lanes, street lights, bus stands, sitting areas, parks, play areas, public toilets and many more counting. For the analysis part, of course a need-based assessment was conducted by the participants to ensure that the needs of all sections of the society could be met by the existing infrastructure or not. This intersectionality speaks volumes about how many parts of our identity overlap in our everyday life to establish who would have a say and who would not – your religion, skin color, your caste (specific to India), your sex as well as the way you dress – all such matters overlap to determine how strong your voice might sound.
It might seem like these are very well-known dynamics which everyone is aware of, but are they really observant and reflective enough to understand the consequences of such belief systems? I would beg to differ, with the amount of feedback received from the participants who were majorly involved in our first community walk. Again, how could walking change something? Let me get back to the part why I started this piece with a quote from Jane Jacobs – she was a pioneer in establishing this idea that walking could be such a practice that might allow for the citizen’s lived experiences to change the way a city could be planned (Verso, 2017).
Why Walking then?
Walking creates a map of unconnected areas into a rhythm of practice which others automatically abide by – a philosophical take on how Michel De Certeau approached the aspect of walking and everyday life in constructing city spaces. This further establishes how spaces are constructed also out of this habit and practice – wherein underlies the societal stigmas and stereotypes fed through our socialization. Walking together creates a process of co-creation by stimulating the urge to have conversations on shared issues – as and when people are in a group they tend to feel and reciprocate on certain very common things. While walking itself is a great methodology of finding common harmony, rhythm and communal feeling amongst participants, it also becomes a utilitarian tool of realizing embodiment (or a visceral understanding of your senses and bodily feeling) and the environment, enhances the ability to think together and think ‘slowly’ as a group (Springgay & Truman, 2019). Thinking in the presence of others opens up several avenues for thinking differently about the same thing (Springgay & Truman, 2019), hence broadening the horizons of imagination. While this first walk of ours definitely was not something unthinkable, yet it brought forward several issues which not have been noticed in our everyday journeys. Walking creates a feeling of common consciousness which could be very well understood through the insights gathered from the respondents/participants of the walk, as it is not just from some commonly known group of people – they were all from different age groups, gender identities and professional backgrounds.
Where it all happened –
With the initiation of this walk, several new and persisting problems of the built environment were brought up which are rarely spotted and thought about. It is not just the job of practitioners and planners where in there have been instances in which decisions have been made without fully acknowledging all the sections of the society, and public opinion remains a secondary matter (Hussain & Shukla, 2021). While this walk cannot be vouched for the entirety of Kolkata – it just covered a small distance within the Southern district of Kolkata – starting from Lake or Rabindra Sarovar, which is a popular recreational urban common of Kolkata – and ending at Desha-Priya Park crossing, one of the busiest crossings of South Kolkata. The walk was intended to assess through the eyes of participants – as a bottom-up and participatory approach in order to understand public infrastructures and public places through unique lived experiences (Lived experiences are used and harped upon in order to understand the differences and difficulties faced by varied identities on the basis of their social, economic or political identities).
A major drawback
However, during this walk the aspect of having different class or caste representations were not specifically diverse, which could be considered as a drawback of this walk – which was also mentioned by one of the participants as a feedback.
The Realities of Interpretation
The participants joined in as they considered walking to be something far more liberating, a means of gathering peace of mind and most importantly which was a common point of view for mostly all the participants was how it helps them reflect on their everyday life – thus to quote one of them “Walking gives us this opportunity to sense, observe and debunk micro-events of macro-phenomenology”. It disrupts the whole urban order, thereby creating an essence of a subversive act of engaging with public spaces, as opined by de Certeau (1984). Very easily deciphered this means how walking could help reflect on and understand the hidden layers of everyday experience which we might take for granted from the bigger picture of society at large. This feels weirdly empowering while writing on the date of a radical event in Kolkata, where on the midnight of just receiving independence women/men/gender non-binary and queer individuals would hit the streets of Kolkata to fight for the justice of a woman Tilottoma, who lost her life due to heinous rape and murder – using one incident to fight for claiming the right to belong in public spaces, institutions and infrastructures at any point of time in the day. This is not just a micro-cause but something that has added to one of the major points of claiming your right to the city. Interestingly while attending a conference I discovered that this re-claiming itself is a problematic statement when you would consider all the places in the urban to be equally beneficial for all gender groups – but that would certainly ignore the incompetent ways of looking at and interpreting the ignored agencies of millions of such gendered identities who have claimed and reclaimed spaces which has been purposefully been denied to them.
These struggles and vindications are a matter of everyday affair, which is why having keen observations are mandatory which the participants in the walk did not fail in achieving. Their observations did give us some common points of reference for understanding what useful infrastructures might look like and they involved some new additions to recurring necessities. While one the participants opined that useful infrastructures are the stepping blocks of creating inclusive and impactful cities, while some others interjected the necessity of such infrastructures being considerate of intersectionality in individual identities to be ensuring of everyone’s well-being. It certainly points out how our infrastructures need to be more caring in nature – that care is not just a quality of humans but is a beneficial quality for humans. According to Collective Punt 6, a Feminist Organization in Barcelona, a Caring City must be one where people could navigate the streets unhindered, where there should be a community connection that strong which could allow one to seek for help and guidance whenever possible – to reduce levels of harassment, feeling of being unsafe and unwelcoming attitudes (Valdivia, 2021). In our context, parks, which were one of the key feature of investigation and observation, are spaces of care and are also supposed to be caring spaces – now if these areas are not somewhat made accessible for all then it becomes problematic to involve the element of care in its description.
Counter-maps or what we call Counter-realities created through Re-imagination
The participants were keen enough in observing how spaces within the park itself were not convenient enough for everyone. Their observations brought forth an interesting practice which gave a new and fresh dimension of thinking about one’s Right to the City – as it involves reimagining something the way you would want it to be – reimagination happened through the process of counter-mapping. Counter-mapping could be considered as an essential tool of understanding how cultural revitalization could take place, or how renaming a place or reclaiming a place could feel like – it is an essential tool of collaborative cartography which involves grassroots communities coming together to map out places in a democratic manner (Hemsworth & Castle, 2022). Here counter-mapping as a tool was used to reimagine what an inclusive public space would like – keeping in mind the needs and demands of all ages and body types – along with their unique social identities. Some of the Counter-maps would be showcased below.
Counter-map of how public toilets should look like by Shilad Sengupta, Post Graduate Researcher.
Counter map of the Lion’s Safari Park by Monami Chatterjee, Post Graduate Researcher.
Counter map of Rabindra Sarovar Lake by Shireen Majumdar, School Student.
Counter Map of Rabindra Sarobar By Vaishna Biswas, Technical Research Associate.
Counter Map of Lion’s Safari Park by Oishi Maitra, Postgraduate Student.
Counter Map of Southern Avenue Road by Diya Adak, Freelance Educator.
Solutions Speak
As per the innovative ideas and solutions/recommendations and interventions made by the participants, only some of which has been showcased out here – it shows how different positionalities and identities could have overlapping recommendations which not only caters to people but also to the environment. This step ultimately allowed their voices to be heard in a creative and unique means of reclamation and being a means of adding everyday lived experiences in making lives and infrastructures co-dependent and cooperative of each other. While it is true that the physical environment can never bring social justice, but it sure as well can symbolize it by portraying the reflections of those minds who want to bring in the change. When social rationality dies down and market rationality gains an upper hand (Wolf-Powers, 2009), people’s demands and needs are flushed down the drain of ignorance, while what is upheld represents the benefits of a few who look at the city from “up above” than “down below”. In order to establish a city that looks from the bottom-up, a participatory initiative could be a better and more reliable move to ensure people’s demands are heard and fulfilled. It is how the Right to the City could be genuinely established, through the essential voices of the inhabitants, who work formally as well as informally to maintain the urban structure. It is out of habit that walking becomes just another chore in our everyday life, but while you do not consider it as a part of the process and make it the whole process itself – then only we can see the better picture, the true realm of societal functioning. This was something which was acquired by the participants as well, because being actively engaged in the field allowed them to explore it like nothing done before. They made some very clear observations of symbolic hierarchy – the caste and class practices that might not be visible to the naked eyes all the time. Being at leisure then has its own benefits. One of the participants, Deyasini Roy, made a very quick observation that in the parks where ladies have a separate space of recreation, they should have a changing room as well, as it allows for a room where women could change into clothes – like body fitting ones – which are not allowed at home because of conservative mentalities. This proves how we imagine situations and circumstances through lived experiences and narratives of our everyday life.
Embodied Experience
One of the participants, Abdhija Saha noticed how men were lurking outside the children’s play space where it was specifically recommended to be accompanied by children in order to be allowed entrance in the park. While it was not surprising for a society to avoid, ignore or not entertain such gazes, it somehow alters the possibility of being comfortable in your own embodied belonging in any public space. This is what many people might have opined for when asked about embodied understanding of exploring public spaces. Embodied feeling is mostly about your bodily feelings, your visceral being that has the sensations of surroundings, accompanied by the four other senses of your body. However, it is not just limited to that, as it also involves how according to your gender (the societal expectations on your sexual identity) your embodied being should be. “Embodiment can be defined as ‘existential condition in which the body is the subjective source or intersubjective ground of experience’ and the concept can help with the cultural understanding of the body” (Csordas 1999, as mentioned in “Embodied cognition and information experiences of transgender people” by Aira Huttunen, Lottamari Kähkönen, Heidi Enwald & Terttu Kortelainen. 2019). It is more of a socio-cultural influence which is why we are already aware of our bodily presence, and hence some bodies are easy going, invisible and comfortable – while others are wired to be invisible yet due to certain prevalent stereotypes become more visible. As it has been rightfully pointed out by one of the participants that human bodies are constructed by societal expectations and hence, they are supposed to be categorized as public infrastructures as well – shaped by the processes of socialization. It is such that even the mere act of waiting in public spaces becomes a matter of serious offense and symbolizes women to be prostitutes – determining whether your body should be respected or not (Phadke, 2007).
Navigating intersectionality
Pleasure in urban spaces has always been linked with being a rule breaker, being unapologetic, ‘transgressive’, anonymous and what not – yet somehow these pleasures are costly for some individuals or downright unavailable (Phadke, Khan & Ranande, 2011). This specific quote from Why Loiter is still some how applicable in the present situation and taking Kolkata specifically into consideration we can understand that reclaiming not just public spaces but reclaiming one’s own individuality and existence becomes far more problematic as pleasure of being alive was never not apolitical. This was seen with the viewpoints of the participants when they were given circumstances to decipher how a transwoman would navigate public spaces and how a 10-year-old girl with differential physical needs or a person with disability would feel like navigating through public spaces – busy crowded spaces or with overwhelming sensorial surroundings. While the responses of the participants were inclusive to say the least, it has been one of the drawbacks of the walk where not much intersectional representations were covered in order to really explore and dissect such lived experiences. It becomes imperative to bring in diversity, not just for the show of it, but to fulfill the demands of building a participatory, inclusive and intersectional city – a caring and feminist city. The whole idea behind conducting these participatory community walks was to establish a narrative in order to support the cause of establishing a feminist city in Kolkata. Anyway, keeping in mind the essence of intersectionality, famously crafted by the legendary Kimberly Crenshaw, in order to expose the various layers of an individual’s identity and how that impacts one’s positionality and decision-making ability in society – ranging from one’s skin color, religion, gender, sexuality, caste, class, etc. – it could be said that it is one of the key factors of establishing a bottom-up approach or considering the social-rationality part of planning cities. Afterall, it is all just a part of making urban planning more opinionated, unbiased and affordable, approachable and accessible for all individuals alike.
The opinions ranged from showing concerns regarding physical needs of the individual to the very basic attribute of stigmas regarding ‘othered’ bodies. According to Simon de Beauvoir, the other is usually the one whose existence is dependent on how the ‘I’ would decipher them to be. It is us who have generated such stereotypes and prejudiced beliefs against the so-called ‘marginalized’ who are not even supposed to live in the margins. The margins that have been created in our minds are what hinders us from becoming liberated from the tendencies of othering humans who are none-the-less like us, if not by appearance or ability, but on a more nuanced, humanitarian level. Being humane and being a planner is another difficult level of activity where balance seems to be lost – as agreed by one of the participants Oishi Maitra, who believes that people-centric designs are the need of the hour as what we have usually fed in the name of planning are capitalist and selfish agendas. While it is true, yet Monami Chatterjee, another participant would beg to differ on certain grounds – claiming that it is not humanly possible to accommodate the needs of every single individual at once, however, what the planners could do is they should definitely keep in mind facets of intersectional needs and diverse bodily needs or amenities that could fulfill immediate sufferings of certain sections of the society. The very aspect of a transwoman being verbally abused and not readily accepted by the society was not surprising to receive as answers from the participants, or the pedestrian spaces being inconvenient for a differently-abled individual as no such proper amenities like that of sloped platforms are available for their access or even the fact that such posh neighborhoods like the one which we explored (Ballygunge Cultural, Lake View Road) accept certain form of dress code which someone from a lower-economic class position would find difficulty in adjusting with. This basically provides us with a narrative that someone who is differently-abled, upholds an identity which is beyond the heteronormative ‘tyrannical’ binary (Doan, 2010), or is from a lower socio-economic background could be ‘othered’ quite easily due to inaccessible, unapproachable and unaffordable places that restricts free play, reduces self esteem of such individuals – thereby hindering their performativity, lack of connectivity with the community and lack of inclusive public infrastructures like public toilets. Thus people-centric design must be made in such a manner where it is not only socially and environmentally sustainable, but also ensure a budget-friendly development cost that could be effectively constructed and affiliated by the government.
Planning Alternatives
These instances gesture towards an intervention in planning alternative visions, but more from a policy perspective. As has been rightfully said that citizen participation in urban planning is a key factor of making planning democratic, egalitarian and non-essentialized in nature – making sure lived realities or grounded realities are kept in mind (Mitlin, 2021). While for men making decisions and being the central face in such citizen interventions might have been easier (however, not for all class sections), there is a dire need for women to mobilize themselves as communities in order to voice their opinions in decision-making and engage with political and governance issues at the ward level (Jhabvala & Brahmbhatt, 2020). The participants in the community walk brought in their own policy level and structural interventions in order to make some dynamic changes in the practice of everyday life in the selected locality and spaces of study. The general requirements which were focused upon by several participants included that of more greenery, seating spaces for all outside parks as well so that people could take rest, adequate tree sheds, proper sanitary and hygienic arrangements like public toilets which are accessible to all, better dustbin arrangements in localities at regular intervals, etc. Shireen Majumdar added an interesting take to installing garbage bins – which should be odor cancelling, that might add to the comfort level in an area and ensure hygienic maintenance of an area.
Some of them were essentially quite unique, which are enlisted as ongoing quotes – directly from the participants –
Deyasini Roy, Public Service Aspirant, mentions some unique recommendations –
• She intends on building more gender-neutral or unisex restrooms
• She intends to bring the concept of structures like community halls and community libraries, which has been supported by Shireen Majumdar, a student of 11th standard as well, which would be available for all ages; and she even intends to add more schools in her locality which would have open discussions regarding socio-political issues.
• She intends to construct refreshment or halting places for elders near markets like that of Tollygunge Market.
• She even intended on building community owned food atm’s and breastfeeding stalls for mothers which is a needed aspect in order for the city to be caring for the needs of ‘caregivers’ who are usually sidelined. There has been even instances in India where these breastfeeding stations have been situated but knowledge and awareness regarding the same has been missing amongst those who need such amenities.
Another participant, Diya Adak had some very interesting set of recommendations which are as follows –
• She intends on building separate bicycle lanes and designated market areas in order to keep pedestrian spaces like footpaths free of encroachment. She believes there should be less crowdedness of private vehicles that should not be parked in front of the park, which creates hindrance in walkability – that might lead to crowded pedestrian spaces and roads that leads to discomfort.
• She wants to design specific safe centers and zones within parks, which is agreed upon by both Oishi Maitra and Monami Chatterjee, who believe that it would help ease down sensory overload as parks are usually places where there are lot of play equipments and areas with lot of constant noise, vibrant colors and chances of having sensory overload. According to both Diya and rest of the respondents, safe spaces should be built within the park itself in order to make neurodivergent needs being met, as it would make spaces available and accessible for all.
• Both Vaishna Biswas and Diya believe that noise cancelling headphones, sensitive walls for reduction of flares and usage of sunglasses could be some better equipments to assist in the maintenance of safe spaces for kids or teenagers with neurotypical disabilities. Vaishna Biswas also added the importance of building tactile pavements for blind people which could be felt with a supporting cane like textured surfaces or raised patterns.
One such fascinating statement has been given by Oishi Maitra, which goes as “ Disability is a huge term which has its reality constructed by stigmas around it. These stigmas keep the differently abled bodies out of public spaces”. Even she has opined that there should be separate play areas for neurotypical and neurodivergent kids as they could sometimes feel unwelcomed in play areas which are available for all. This was a unique perspective presented by her where she believes along with such safe spaces within the park there should be a nurse, first aid and breast-feeding and diaper changing booth within this space to provide natural surveillance and ensure safety.
- Asad Ali, student and participant of this walk, had some unique inputs to provide as a planner – he insisted on making the surrounding areas of the park more walkable friendly area by making sure the roads are wide enough, the pavements are less encroached, more over-bridges that helps in lessening traffic congestion and also ensuring efficient sign boards for better navigation through the streets. In several areas in and around the streets of the particular region which we were traversing at, we found that several bus stands were not named properly, had low seating arrangements and even the netted areas around trees were used as dumping spaces of garbage, occasionally harming the whole idea of planting trees and maintaining a stable ecology.
- Subhroja added a unique insight by mentioning the importance of drinking water taps which are available 24 hours a day, specifically seen in North Kolkata which are good planning examples for individuals accessing that place, affordable for all.
Why a Gendered Lens?
Cities are majorly unsafe for a greater number of people, whether that is on the streets, using public transport, or even while navigating public spaces – especially for women, girls, and gender-diverse people, who are frequently made to feel uncomfortable, unsafe and intimidated, because of their gender identity (Kalms & Bawden, 2021). This is exactly why a gendered lens becomes mandatory in understanding city spaces – while there was not a consensus regarding this statement as it was more of an unlearning process than a learning one – still I could say that mainly every participant agreed with this. Speaking of a gendered lens – participants considered it to be the most vital tool of analysis in order to untangle the complex ‘heteropatriarchal, phallocentric norms’ which have tried to dilute the need to harp on the demands of those who are not adherers to the “tyranny of gender binary”. A gendered lens could be a good tool for identifying disparities, as opined by Vaishna Biswas, while Diya Adak adds to this being a critical element in the intersectional spectrum of analysis in order to bring forward the underlying nuances of the city structure.
A gendered lens is not only vital for assessing public infrastructures, but it is also helpful in unearthing the symbolic integrity it holds for every individual at different levels. For some it is easier to uphold their identity and be comfortable in their own embodiment, while for others it is this element that corners them socially, economically and politically – making them irrelevant, insecure and vulnerable. The participants were candid about their vulnerabilities in accordance to the identity they uphold and added some recommendations of their own to make matters better. A standard question was asked as to note any such troubles that you might face because of your gender identity, and these were mainly their responses –
• While only one respondent who identified himself as a heterosexual man considered that there are no such hindrances in public spaces in regard to navigating the streets of Kolkata, most of the respondents who identify themselves as females had some other verses to communicate.
• Monami Chatterjee, a non-binary queer individual, claims that their gender identity has usually attracted unacceptance due to the heteronormative structure of the society, literally in every place they have visited. Lack of gender-neutral washrooms or swimming classes or changing rooms has given them discomfort and a feeling of being unapproachable – while lack of queer friendly spaces have made them consider most of the public places like cafes as unaffordable. She even felt disturbed at how spaces inside the park were made accessible only for women, as her identity which is mainly of not confirming to the binaries made her feel under the gaze for not performing as a woman – thus making it inaccessible.
• Oishi Maitra, who identifies herself as a bisexual homoromantic individual, has also faced dilemmas in accessing streets after dark as lack of streetlights and ‘eyes on the streets’ have made her access restricted or not without anxieties. She believes that tea stalls are such spaces which are inherently occupied by heterosexual men who would linger with their gazes when women pass by, making them uncomfortable in their bodily presence, as attested by another respondent – Subhroja. While Oishi also confirms that not only does her sexuality make her feel unsafe, or isolated as has been mentioned by Vaishna, but also makes her a possible threat to cis-het-women. An interesting take was the symbolic representation of women in cigarette advertisements was quite low in comparison to that of men, repressing the fact that women could even smoke – this made Oishi feel that there should be enough representation for women on the advertisements as a smoker herself, to make women aware of the dangers corelated to it.
• Shilad Sengupta, who identifies as a man, said that they have their own set of problems with the way they tend to behave in public spaces. They do not follow a cis-gendered dress code which makes people stare at him and even their way of speaking has attracted disturbing attention where people have mimicked him in a derogatory manner. They have also suffered from catcalls, however, he also mentioned they were quite rare.
• Several other respondents have added to the narratives of feeling discomfort, chances of physical harassment, feeling vulnerable especially at night and the probability of being catcalled, crowded transportation making them uncomfortable, dimly lit places being unapproachable for them. Even the fact of hindering footpaths and pedestrian zones becomes a matter of concern as it has been supported by data that women avail walking as the main means of commute apart from public transportation. Deyasini Roy has mentioned how being followed for quite some time or lingering scrutiny over types of dressing also makes her feel uncomfortable in public spaces.
• Another factor of a gendered assessment was whether these participants would be comfortable enough to participate if it happened at night. While the consensus was on the walk being uncertain, mostly participants were reluctant on being enthusiastic about the idea. Some of the problems in relation to it includes not getting permission from parents, grouped men symbolizes some form of threat which could make the participants feel vulnerable, discomfort over the unknown and not having enough preparedness for dealing with nighttime precarity. Dimly lit areas might also give anxiety to women, but there were some positive feedbacks as well. Male participants were mostly excited about the aspect of having a night time walk – as they would have found the nightscape to be a new adventure as well as the night time to be more serene. Some female participants even mentioned that if accompanied they would have felt safer and being with a group also brings a sense of courage to explore spaces at any time of the day. While one of the participants also mentioned how at night time due to low lighting it might also feel like observing public spaces might become difficult. Yet it was a more or less mixed response.
Semiotics in the City
Symbolic significance of urban areas also matters a lot in case of how a city would be perceived for people. Kolkata has always been dynamic and overtly enthusiastic over its secular symbolism with hidden political affiliations. As has been rightly pointed out by Althusser, ideology drives a lot of decisions and could be a strong tool of influence in the way people behave in the everyday life. It is not just surprising to say that architectural buildings and designs or even statues have the cultural and symbolic significance that narrates a social message of maintaining the ‘natural dichotomy of masculinity and femininity” (Bondi, 1992). Political symbolism has been a major dimension of how religious aspects could become a central theme of everyday life, deriving motivation for such belief systems and adding to propaganda policies.
- Oishi Maitra and other participants have well agreed that the impact of religious and political symbols have taken over public spaces quite significantly, denying the whole purpose of having secular, democratic spaces. Even within the Safari Park, the symbolism of classism and religious propaganda could be deciphered making it only accessible or approachable for some people – making them only acceptable people – creating divisions between people.
- Shilad. Monami and Vaishna have felt uncomfortable with the Hindu religious symbols in front of a main entrance in Ladies park of the Safari Park area.
- The whole aspect of only having vegetarian diet was also alarmingly propagation-filled step, as observed by Diya Adak.
- Even the fact that seating areas are reserved for ‘members only’ made Deyasini Roy feel that it is a discriminatory and segregation approach within public spaces like that of parks.
A Gendered Symbolic approach in order to maintain a gender-equal environment and secular approach would be for gender-neutral imageries and streets named after women famous in academia or political figures or even warriors, as practiced and propagated in the city of Vienna. The city is filled with symbols and the public sphere which has thought to be the sphere laden with political undertones of various kinds should have the ability to know how to foster equal and open participation for all, instead of limiting it to some members of the society – while restricting those who shall have an equal say – which is why holding a decentralized system accountable by the citizens through regular, momentary interventions is a necessity. Kolkata as a city in the present times is trying so hard to portray the image of world class city in order to attract capital investments, leading to over-valorization of capital and creation of contradictory geographies which further highlights the sharpened inequalities present within city spaces (Pal, 2016).
Environment and the City
Environmental concerns were mainly shown amongst the participants when asked about their sensorial feelings, as they navigated from spaces with proper tree cover to areas where the footpaths started getting narrower and tree covers started reducing creating a mixed experience amongst the participants. It is important to notice why making communities resilient and aware enough regarding climate change and ways to combat it. Abhijit Ekbote mentions in an interview with Question of Cities, that people in a particular community should have knowledge about green spaces through the help of a spatial system. This knowledge would empower them and encourage them to reimagine a city harmonious with nature ( Dhagey & Rele, 2024). The participants were mostly excited about the company that they had with their friends and some new faces whom they could socialize with, but their bodily sensations due to the environment was unbearable.
• Coming towards Juggals, which is a famous sweet shop in the locality of Lake View, it is a lane that connects with the main road and it is a four-point intersection, where usually a lot of traffic and busyness could be observed around the time when we conducted our walk. One of the participants Archishman Saha, student, felt unsafe because of traffic congestion and less of traffic regulation in comparison to the interiors where tree cover was more, and congestion was less.
• They mostly felt irritated because of the humidity and heat of the June month, added with the afternoon sun’s heat which was inescapable. Having uneven footpaths also caused a lot of irritation for many of the respondents.
• Smell of the garbage and talks around us, we were being constantly observed – was a matter of discomfort for the participants
• Irritation was also generated when participants observed how plastic bottles and waste was thrown literally inside the park, in front of a signboard reading usage of plastic is prohibited. Empty wine bottles stacked in front of a dustbin and not inside it was a matter of concern for participant Vaishna Biswas.
Senses and the city
These were some of the major sensorial experiences of the participants, and me being the conductor of this walk was exasperated to say the least, yet it was an exciting and important venture which surely made me learn how to handle different opinions, sit through people’s doubts and keep everyone engaged towards a common goal. All of this looks and feels very daunting, but at the end of the day your sensorial and embodied experiences goes beyond the dilemmas of one – to become the shared reality of many.
• However, there were some positive outcomes of the walk regarding the path which was covered – which the participants were quick to point out.
• Shireen Majumdar was quite satisfied with the fact that the park was located quite near to transportation connections with fruit stalls and several snacks or drinking water facilities available within quite some footsteps from the main Sarobar park.
• According to Subhroja, the free access to children’s play area, drinking water and public toilets was something positive, as usually all public toilets are pay-and-use toilets.
• According to Deyasini, the space around Sarobar Lake was quite silent and less of noise was something positive for embodied and sensorial experiences (however, in some circumstances, especially in the dark ,this might seem eerie and can incite anxiety). For her Deshapriya Park Crossing was an inclusive place and even a Religious building like that of a temple, which is present nearly at every corner of Kolkata – that incites as an incidental place where people could sit around and create a momentary collectivity, might become very useful for maintaining safety.
• Tree shed and park benches were considered to be some positives by Vaishna and Shilad.
• Gym areas and stepping stones which could be accessible for all and could be considered as a means of creating a caring infrastructure – that cares for not only your physical health but also social health as you can interact with others – and people of all ages could access it, as opined by Oishi.
• Asad also opined that this area had less awkward gazes to be bothered about as this was nearly a less crowded area. However, the matter of gaze could be something very different for men, women or gender non-binary individuals. This has been countered and proven by Monami where she puts how the roads were inclusive avoiding or barring the gaze from the passing crowd and dimly lit areas.
However, for a queer individual, representation was lacking to say the least - which could have felt inclusive for them. In order to observe and be yourself, in your own embodied being and be comfortable about it was lacking in many absolute posh localities as well, which we ventured into. Unless you have a queer lens to observe your surroundings, you might miss out on several such instances where you could make spaces seem inclusive and make certain dynamic changes. For creating such dynamic and revolutionary planning within cities a true spirit of challenging the hegemony within the imagination of ‘abstract spaces’(ideally heteronormative and capitalist agendas that construct spaces) have to be countered and toppled through the creation of such queer spaces – that is a space that does not confirm to the reiterated societal norms and challenges the heteropatriarchal order. In order for that to happen a demystified and a decolonial lens becomes vital that could undo the top-down vertical practices of looking at planning, and instead focus on the needs of the community. Educating and making communities aware might bring about previously untouched and uncovered zones of discussion which we tend to either avoid, ignore or essentialize. A gendered approach would be a further addition to the intersectional dissection that needs to add the element of ‘grounded reality’ and create such queer, feminist and spaces of deviant imaginations for all – that would be approachable, accessible and affordable for all.
Photography and Cityscapes
Next up is a photo story of the various forms of interpretations channelized through the thoughts, observations and visualization of participants that touches upon each of the themes discussed above. Photo-stories as a method has been used to justify and uphold certain stories that are better seen and realized than just read as any other line on a policy draft – it allows to study situations and perspectives from a subjective viewpoint, giving access to the emotions and lived realities of others that could either coincide or diverge from your thought processes, broadening your socio-political and socio-cultural horizons (Mcintyre, 2003) :
Diya Adak represented some moments from the walk-
This showcases the aspect of parking of private cares on pedestrian spaces, making public spaces private and defining classist hierarchies of spaces. Public spaces on the road gets compromised as cars are parked in those spaces. Visual aesthetics of this place also gets tampered with the visibility of electric wires causing ‘visual pollution’.
shift of space for adda – that is a form of discussion about life, sports, gossip which usually men have been associated to have engaged with – it has shifted from roak (a place on roadsides made elevated through cement or bricks) to footpaths. She explains how work hour and leisure collapses for these subjects and how they intend to make the public setting into a private space by adding ‘an ear’ to everything happening in their surroundings. Hegemony of eyes are given less importance and hearing given special importance in these circumstances.
this was a space which was claimed to be for members only, yoga club, but what Diya captured was a person who was practicing their dancing in this space when everyone was not watching which makes this an act of reclamation of space/ act of deviance/ resistance in everyday life.
the space of exclusion as sitting is only for staffs of the Lion’s Safari Park. Plus, the maintenance of this space is also poor with lots of unwanted weeds and creepers.
This image captures an All-women public space – which might have changed with temporality, as night time scenarios would have been different. This is also a symbol of reclaiming space by the ‘othered’ gender through practices of leisure, gossip while eating a street-style delicacy called phuchka. And here you could literally find all age-group ranges except elderly women.
Next are some photo stories by Vaishna Biswas who has really captured nearly all the topics which has been discussed throughout the article, very consciously and cautiously:
Some others were also contributed by Shireen Majumdar about the community walk –
Ultimately, the whole idea behind constructing such a dynamic research is to create a quality Feminist City that would have the following necessary qualities (these are inspirations from many books, research articles and responses of participants):
Last but not the least, thank you for sticking till the absolute end. Our third walk is happening on the 29th of September in Kolkata, would you be interested in joining?
would you want to?
0%yes for sure
0%still need clarity
References:
• Adler. D. (2017). The Right to the City A Verso Report. Verso.
• Bondi, L. (1992). Gender and dichotomy. Progress in Human Geography, 16(1), 98-104. https://doi.org/10.1177/030913259201600109
• De Certeau, Michael (1984) The Practice of Everyday Life, Berkeley: University of California Press
• Dhagey, J. & Rele, M. (2024). Climate disasters are connected to the way our cities are planned. Question of Cities. https://questionofcities.org/climate-disasters-are-connected-to-the-way-our-cities-are-planned/
• Doan, P. L. (2010) The tyranny of gendered spaces – reflections from beyond the gender dichotomy, Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography, 17:5, 635-654. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2010.503121
• Jhabvala, R. & Brahmbhatt, B. (2020). The City-Makers: How Women are Building a Sustainable Future for Urban India. Hachette India.
• Kalms, N. ; Bawden, G. ; Mathewson, G. & Aisenberg, A. (2021). YourGround: Mapping a safer Victoria for women and gender-diverse people. Monash University. https://yourgroundarchive.org/
• Mcintyre, A. (2003.) Through the Eyes of Women: Photovoice and participatory research as tools for reimagining place, Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography, 10:1, 47-66
• Mitlin, D. (2021). Editorial: Citizen participation in planning: from the neighbourhood to the city. Environment and Urbanization, 33(2), 295-309. https://doi.org/10.1177/09562478211035608
• Pal, S. (2016). Politics of Urbanscape: Transfiguring the Image of Kolkata. International Conference on Emerging Trends in Engineering, Science and Technology (ICETEST - 2015). Procedia Technology 24 ( 2016 ) 1766 – 1773. doi: 10.1016/j.protcy.2016.05.214
• Phadke, S. (2007). Re-mapping the Public: Gendered Spaces in Mumbai, in Book “Gender and the Built Environment in India” by Ed. Desai, Madhavi. (2007). Zubaan Academic. New Delhi.
• Phadke, S. ; Khan, S. & Ranade, S. (2011). Why Loiter? : Women and Risk on Mumbai Streets. Penguin Books India.
• Shukla, D.& Ali, A. (2021). Reclaiming Urban Spaces For Women Through Gender Inclusive Approaches [ICAB-UD-2116]. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353128295_RECLAIMING_URBAN_SPACES_FOR_WOMEN_THROUGH_GENDER_INCLUSIVE_APPROACHES_ICAB-UD-2116
• Springgay, S. & Truman, S. E. (2019). Walking Methodologies in a More-than-Human World: Walking Lab. Routledge, London & New York.
• https://futurearchitecturerooms.org/the-caring-city Valdivia, B. (2021).
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