Postcard 1
Postcard 1
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”Paani chori na ho isiliye log taala maarte hai apne nul pe.”
Gender and cultivating public spaces
Gender and cultivating public spaces
”Baoli hai tension mat lo! Humlog idhar hi baithte hain, bache log soh bhi jaate hai idhar thandak ke vajah se (it's just a borewell, don’t take tension! We sit here only, children even sleep here because of the coolness).” Each gully had around five to six such borewells, with four to five households having unrestricted access to them. “Khadi ke vajah se paani khara hota hai. Filter hoke saaf rehta hai, par khara hota hai. Isiliye meetha paani lene aage aana padta hai .(The water is salty because of the creek. It gets filtered but it is salty. We have to go further ahead to get sweetwater.)”
Water is a valuable resource in the settlement as piped municipal water supply is limited to an hour each day. Around five to six households depend on a solitary tap for their daily water requirements. The households lock and cover the tap with a cloth to prevent water theft. This also necessitates the storage of potable water for drinking and cooking in large containers and drums. Water for other purposes is drawn from the baoli.
Women from the households adjacent to the baoli actively choose to grow plants and trees around it. “Hum sabne hi lagaye hain! Ye zameen pe kuch nahi tha, pura khandar tha! ye jo ped-paudhe jo dikhte hain na aapko, vo sab lagaye gaye hai! Kuch log shauk se ugate hai, toh kuch bhaji-phal dene wale ped ugate hai! (We all have only planted. There was nothing on this ground; it was a ruin. All these trees and plants that you see are planted by us. Some people plant it for both as a hobby, others grow vegetables-fruits).” While men contractors construct houses and baolis from stone, cement and asbestos sheets, women design, cultivate and tend to the landscape of the narrow lanes around baolis with plants and trees.
Postcard 2
Postcard 2
"Bhada deneko jamta nahi toh hum jungle mai jaata hain"
Sharing of Public Toilet
Sharing of Public Toilet
“Humko pura main road cross karke jaana padta hai (We need to cross the entire mainroad),” said residents of Muslim households from the settlement referring to their use of public toilets. According to them, public toilets located in the gullies that they lived in lacked cleanliness. Attention to cleanliness emerges from their religious practices in the use of such public facilities, “Humlog mein toilet ekdum saaf rakhna padta hai na (In our religion, the toilets must be kept very clean).” They preferred to go to the municipal toilets across the main road even if it became wearisome to walk the whole way on an everyday basis to access cleaner facilities.
In other cases, three to four households share a sanitation facility consisting of two to four toilets. As the responsibility of maintaining these toilets falls on the owners, people who wish to use these outhouses pay a monthly fee of Rs. 200. “Magar bahut log toh BMC wale mein hi jaate hai (But a lot of people go to the BMC ones).” These include individuals from households with lower incomes or those staying away from the collectively owned toilets prefer the BMC public toilets as they are affordable alternatives at Rs.2-5 per visit. "Bhada deneko jamta nahi toh hum jungle mai jaata hain (If we are unable to pay the rent, then we go to the jungle)," says a resident staying at the mangrove edge. Residents at the inner edge of the settlement usually resort to relieving themselves in the mangroves as paying the rent for the toilet turns out to be expensive.
Caste, religiosity, and economic disparity including the fact whether someone is a single migrant intersect to produce the attitudes and imagination of sharing a sanitation facility making it difficult to think of implementing a large one.
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