Women of Koliwada

The women of Koliwada make up a strong and important segment of the community’s population. The way women use the open space of Koliwada ranges from daily activities to annual celebrations and varies by age, occupation, and personal preferences. For five days, a team of participants in the Urban Typhoon workshop explored the streets, alleys and open squares of Koliwada and documented women and their use of spaces. From these observations, good places and bad places for women were identified, as well as regular activities in which women partake in the shared environment of Koliwada.

In an attempt to better understand the women of Koliwada, specifically in regards to their open space needs and desires, several women across age groups and locations were interviewed about their backgrounds, social activities and opinions on the subject of parks and open space. The results of the observations and personal testimonies can be grouped into categories, from which have emerged some themes and principles for future development.  While the results are not comprehensive, we hope that more women in Koliwada will continue to participate in this discussion through dharavi.org and that a virtual space for dialogue and action can be created.

Intent:

Women usually use public space only with legitimate purpose and most often for work. The purpose behind out research in Dharavi was two-fold. Firstly, to find out when and how women used public space for recreation. And secondly, to ask them their ideas about the possibility of creating a public space like an all women park.
This is done with the understanding that if Dharavi Koliwada were to change women would need public space they could access legitimately thus creating a context in which women would have access to recreational public space.

Women's use of Public Space

1.     Women tend to use public space for recreation only around their homes - so this is semi public in that they             are usually in their lanes.

2.     When it is legitimate for women to use public space for recreation they do so like in the days preceding holi         when they take to the streets to sing, laugh, chat and play during the night. However, most of them do not             venture out after dark without purpose on other days.

3.     Women do use parks like City Park (Bandra Kurla Complex), park near Sion depot,and the Maheshwari Udyan to         walk and to take their children.

4.     Most women felt that they would like to keep the low rise structures that they now have which facilitate                 access to the outside for them and their children.

5.     They were also enthusiastic about an all women park and made several suggestions as to what they would like.         An all women park is a good idea as when spaces are open to all they tend to become all male spaces as in the         case of the holi maidan.

Suggestions:

1.     What women would like best is to retain the present structure of housing while creating more public space             that they can use.

2.     Better lighting of streets would also help access even for work related reasons.

3.     An all women park is a good idea, as this provides women with legitimacy to access it.

4.     Existing spaces could also be made more friendly to women like the holi maidan.

5.     There are some locked parks in the vicinity that could be opened up as well.