“You Are a Part of the Solution”: Negotiating Gender-Based Violence and Engendering Change in Urban Informal Settlements in Mumbai, India

Abstract

This article explores how women front-line workers engage with domestic and gender-based violence in the urban informal settlements of Dharavi in Mumbai, India. We conducted in-depth interviews with 13 voluntary front-line workers, along with ethnographic fieldwork in Dharavi, as a part of a pilot study. Our findings contribute to literature on context-specific approaches to understanding gender-based violence and "models" to prevent domestic violence in urban micro-spaces. Furthermore, we also discuss notions of "change" ( badlaav) that the front-line workers experience. Finally, this article presents implications for socially engaged ethnographic research, as well as contextual and grounded insights on ways to reduce gender-based and domestic violence.

“We Learn How to Become Good Men”: Working with Male Allies to Prevent Violence against Women and Girls in Urban Informal Settlements in Mumbai, India

“…We realize that such responses are typical in community-based interventions. They are similar to what we observed with women's groups, from which women reported an increase in knowledge, awareness, and courage to discuss VAWG and intervene in cases of abuse as the most evident forms of personal and collective transformation (Chakraborty et al 2017). However, although most participants reported an increase in awareness and knowledge on issues such as gender equality, it still tended to be discursive and generic and lacked any specific or experiential understanding, as women's engagements often do.…”

“…Between January and June 2017, we carried out a comparative study of women's and men's groups in Dharavi. This was framed by our previous research work in Dharavi, including a pilot study on sangini frontline workers (Chakraborty et al 2017), in which we were concerned with the sustainability of the "sangini model" and the factors that motivated them. Consistent with some of our past research, we used ethnographic methods in addition to other qualitative methods such as focus group discussions (FGDs) for data collection.…”

“…Unlike with men, our work with women is folded into their everyday lives, where women politicize “the home through discussions and dialogues on feminist issues” to raise “feminist consciousness” ( Datta 2012 , 93–94) and also intervene in public. In our previous work, this was exemplified in a case in which a group of sanginis were instrumental in mobilizing against an illegal cellphone tower in their neighborhood ( Chakraborty et al 2017 , 1348). They framed the tower as not just a hazard to physical health but as a risk that would disproportionately affect other urban poor women, children, and elders.…”

“…While informal communities such as Dharavi are also marked by sociocultural diversity and are informal economy hubs (Sharma 2000), women and girls often face marginalization, domestic abuse, violence, and neglect (Datta 2012). The PVWC program’s work with sanginis and women’s groups has played an important role in transforming social relationships in the community and giving women collective agency and autonomy (Chakraborty et al 2017; Daruwalla et al 2015).…”

Rethinking NGOization as Postfeminist Practice: Interstitial Intimacies and Negotiations of Neoliberal Subjectivity in Violence Prevention

“…These sakhis emphasized the change and transformation they experienced in being part of Vinamrata, and the power of building relationships-with each other and with the organization. As my Vinamrata colleagues and I have argued elsewhere, such affective encounters between NGOs, community workers, and community women engender change and transformation, which are further facilitated through reciprocal relationships (Chakraborty et al 2017). The Shivaji Nagar sakhis, in contrast, appeared to look inward, within domestic spaces and conjugal relationships, and asserted a view that ostensibly sought to preserve the patriarchal status quo.…”