Streets and leisure: A Gendered perspective in Ahmedabad City

Abstract

India is a developing country with rapid urbanization in cities like Ahmedabad. Pedestrian spaces, like streets are important public spaces for cities to grow socially, economically and spatially. Public spaces are ideally neutral spaces that can be used by all people for any or no purpose. However, these spaces are selectively accessible. India has been a nation where patriarchal ideologies have governed all sectors, including private and public spaces,resulting into ‘gendered public spaces’ which are, consciously or subconsciously, planned for male activities (Desai, 2022). The prevalence of such gendered public spaces limits the access of women to streets unless found during “purposeful visits”. Further, when leisure is added to public spaces, it becomes almost an alien concept for women. The mapping and research pre viously done on this showed that women in public spaces are seen constantly moving with a purpose and usually in groups occupying spaces which are ‘more public’, in nature (Shilpa Ranade, 2011). Through this study, I have located similar streets in Ahmedabad and analyzed gendered spatial behaviour with respect to the design of these streets for leisure purposes through qualitative and quantitative methodologies including gendered mapping, interviews and focus group discussions.Three streets were selected for the study, where each study is a designed street, selected to observe the correlation of physical design attributes and gendered behavior. The three streets are located in three different zones of Ahmedabad: 1. Residential Zone 2. Commercial Zone and 3. Institutional Zone Different zones are selected aiming to include wider spectrum of people and type of activities. The sites were also selected on basis of an online interview, polling the most favorable leisure spotsin the city. The study is a finding of which physical features regulate a gendered behavior and differences in the spatial behavior with gender, age and surrounding of the selected sites. To access and utilize these spaces with or without a reason is a public right, regardless of gender. As a result, in order to move towards a more gender inclusive city, it is necessary to analyze gender occupancy and activities in these public spaces.