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UPDATE PLUS

Who is the city for?

On a warm evening in Ahmedabad, around 30 architects, urban planners, students,
researchers gathered for a workshop aimed at understanding who the city is for?
While gender was the primary lens through which we aimed to understand the

experience of the city, we intersected it with age, economic status, and disability.
Sonal Shah, the Urban Catalysts gives a brief report

ach participant wore a
persona, either a pregnant
Ewoman from a marginalized
background, a male carer from
a privileged background, an
able-bodied male student going
to a private university, a person
identifying as a transwoman.
They all started from a single
line and began to take a step
forward depending on whether
the statements that were read
out held true for them. The
statements aimed to assess how the city; an able-bodied man had transport in Delhi and enabling
safe they felt in moving around the most access to the city. An women’s access to electric two-
the city independently in the day interesting insight emerged when wheelers-- as a starting point.
and in the night, how affordable a participant – whose persona Each person spoke about his/
the public transport was for them, was that of an able-bodied male her individual experience of
if they had experienced sexual carpenter - mentioned that he living in Ahmedabad, Delhi,
harassment in public spaces. could also experience sexual Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai.
harassment in crowded buses. What emerged from this
As different individuals began
moving forward to claim their right After this exercise, we sat workshop is that we need to start
to the city, it became apparent in a small, compact room and understanding differential access
who was being left behind. The had a detailed discussion about and right to public spaces in the
independent movement of an this exercise, and used two city - gender is a powerful lens,
elderly woman with a motor project videos by The Urban and must be intersected with
impairment was most restricted in Catalysts: safe and secure public other social identities. TT

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