URMILA CONDUCTS: Women and Labour in the streets of Hyderabad

We started this project with the intention of getting a clearer idea as to how comfortable women are in public areas. Many a times we see men just loitering, standing about without necessarily doing anything on street corners/bus stops/parapet walls etc. On the other hand, women don’t seem too comfortable doing the same. Either they need a sense of purpose, for instance going from location A to location B or they feel “safe” only when accompanied by a man. Shilpa Phadke, in her book Why Loiter? Women and Risk on Mumbai Streets, delves into understanding why women don’t feel safe enough to use public spaces without a specific purpose. In an attempt to understand this better for ourselves, we went out on to the streets of Hyderabad to obtain a glimpse of how women navigated public spaces. Click for full Report