CPR-CSH Workshop on Spatializing Paid Domestic Work: Urban Space, Gender and Work in Millennial Delhi by Sonal Sharma of Centre for Policy Research.
Date: Tuesday, 24 June 2014
Time: 3.45 p.m.
Venue: Conference Hall, Centre for Policy Research, Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110 021
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Rapid economic growth and urbanization in the last few decades have led to a striking increase in the number of full-time and part-time domestic workers, a majority of whom are women. To understand the phenomenon of domestic work and dynamics associated with it, it is crucial to recognize that it has an inherently gendered dimension. Based on an ongoing ethnographic study, this paper draws upon the narratives of women domestic workers in the city of Delhi, about their notions of mobility and their perceptions of everyday spaces. It argues that looking at urban spaces through the lens of paid domestic workers enables us to see Delhi in its subalternity, alongside the characteristics of urban development that attempt making it a “world-city”. The paper locates the experiences of women domestic workers in relation to larger processes of urbanization, such as displacement and resettlement, creation of gated communities as elite neighbourhoods and informality of service provision, and tries to offer insights on how the urban – in its evolution and reproduction – is negotiated by these workers on a daily basis. It attempts to spatialize domestic workers’ experiences, both in an external and internal sense: it discusses how they negotiate city spaces in general, as well as spaces of their own and their employers’ homes.
Sonal Sharma is currently a Research Associate with Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. Trained in economics and development studies, he is interested in informality, gender, work and human geography in cities, on which he has published a number of opinion pieces and presented at international conferences. Before joining CPR, he was involved in researching migration and industrial work in Delhi. He has a Master’s degree in Development Studies from Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University, New Delhi.
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This is the fifty third in a series of Urban Workshops planned by the Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH), New Delhi and Centre for Policy Research (CPR). These workshops seek to provoke public discussion on issues relating to the development of the city and try to address all its facets including its administration, culture, economy, society and politics. For further information, please contact: Jayani Bonnerjee at jayani.bonnerjee@csh-delhi.com, Partha Mukhopadhyay at partha@cprindia.org or Marie-Hélène Zerah at marie-helene.zerah@ird.fr
