Development Plan dedicates chapter to women’s provisions

After the earlier Development Plan (2034) faced severe criticism for being gender-biased, the Revised Draft Development Plan (DP) has published an entire chapter with special provisions for women. Moreover, a set of separate reservations for marking social amenities has been created to designate amenities available to women. These have been separated from the basket of general social amenities such as homeless shelters and old age homes, to lay emphasis on the issue of gender equality.

However, activists and corporators believe that most of these amenities will remain on paper, as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) would not be able to find land to bring concepts like housing for single working women, homeless shelters, Adhar Kendras and skill centres and care centres for children to fruition.

The DP now provides for separate markets for women vendors, with four hours per day reserved for women hawkers. Moreover, each ward is to have a skill centre to host training sessions like computer literacy, tailoring and cooking.

Speaking about the civic body’s failure to follow through with plans, Sneha Bose, a city-based women’s rights activist, said, “Consistently even during the Right to Pee campaign, the civic body has promised multiple amenities. It does not take the plan to its conclusion due to several reasons, the most prominent one being lack of space to construct such centres.”

However, there are other provisions that have impressed women’s activists. The civic body plans to construct two-storey toilet blocks henceforth and to build a second floor for 50 per cent of the existing toilet blocks.

An official from the DP department, elaborating on this plan, said, “All toilet blocks will now also have changing rooms and rest rooms on the second floor, where women can actually rest on a sunny day.”

Meanwhile, Chitra Wagh, state president of the Nationalist Congress Party’s women’s wing, who has been pushing for this development, has termed it satisfactory.

Ms Wagh had campaigned for restrooms for women sweepers and garbage collectors, so they can change into work clothes on the job, instead of walking around in clothes that stink.