Funciones y opciones del accionamiento

According to the most recent Census in India (2011), The National Capital Territory of Delhi has an estimated population of 16,349,831, of which 7,598,997 are women (The Census Organization of India, 2015). The NCT of Delhi (henceforth referred to as Delhi) is the capital of India and the most densely inhabited state (The Census Organization of India, 2015). The bordering states of Delhi are Haryana on the North, South and West sides and Uttar Pradesh on the East side. Delhi is divided into nine districts: North West, North, North East, East, West, Central, New Delhi, South West and South (See figure 2).

Figure 2: District map of the National Capital Territory of Delhi

Source: http://www.delhiunlimited.com/geography/geographical-map-of-delhi.htm

Hinduism is the main religion practiced in Delhi, followed by Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism (Census of India 2011, 2011). The major languages in Delhi are Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu and English.

In 1962, the National Capital Region of Delhi was introduced as an inter-state development strategy in response to the fast-growing urbanisation, industrialisation and migration influx to Delhi (Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, 2017). The NCR of Delhi includes the NCT as well as bordering cities of Sonepat, Ghaziabad, Noida, Faridabad and Gurugram (previously Gurgaon), among others. The estimated population of the NCR of Delhi is 25.8 million (The Census Organization of India, 2015). This high number of inhabitants makes the NCR of Delhi the biggest urban area in India and the second largest urban area in the world (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2015).

The main internal migration routes in India are from rural to urban areas (UNESCO, 2013).

However, reports show an increase of temporary and circular migration flows in India (UNESCO, 2011). Delhi together with Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab and Karnataka are the key destination states for internal migrants in India (UNESCO, 2013). According to a study conducted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), internal migrants are often members of the scheduled castes and tribes (see Chapter 2 for more details regarding the caste system in India) (UNESCO, 2011). According to the National Sample Survey (2007-2008), 80 % of internal migrants are women (National Sample Survey Office, 2010). The available national estimates (National Sample Survey Office and the Census), indicate that women migrate principally for marriage (Agnihotri, Mazumdar, & Neetha, 2012; Chakraborty & Kuri, 2013). However, the number of women migrating to Delhi for work is suggested to be much higher than indicated by the national statistics, since domestic work is not accounted for in the surveys due to its informal status (K. Kasturi, 2015). UNESCO estimates indicate that 20 % of all female internal migrants in India are engaged in domestic work (UNESCO, 2013).

Frequently, internal migrants reside in slum areas of Delhi. In colloquial language, a slum area is referred to as ‘community area,’ among other names. Due to the negative connotation of ‘slum’ and in line with local word use, this study uses the term ‘community area’ instead of slum. According to the 2011 Census, people living in community areas in India have increased during the period of 2001 to 2011 from 5,23,71,589 to 6,54,94,604 (Census of India 2011, 2013). Delhi has a high population residing in community areas, often located adjacent to wealthier residential areas, where community dwellers frequently work.

Typically, basic facilities such as running water, toilets, electricity, are scarce in the community areas, as are child- and health care services (Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi, 2015).

In addition to Delhi being a key destination for internal migration, Delhi is further a central destination and transit point for human trafficking routes in India. With regards to child trafficking to Delhi, the source areas are largely rural areas in West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan (UNODC, 2013). Young girls are predominantly trafficked to Delhi for domestic work, to work in factories, for forced marriages and commercial sexual exploitation (UNODC, 2013).

Delhi is a city with a wide range of cultures, religions and movement of people. Such diversity poses a major challenge when trying to capture the specifics of a phenomenon in such environment. In other words, doing research in an urban setting like Delhi is challenging as it requires making sense of immense chaos and diversities that the researcher first must identify and familiarise oneself with and thereafter, organise and make sense of in a systematic way, to collect a credible set of data. Therefore, in order to gather a representative sample reflecting this diversity of Delhi, I decided to collect data from the main districts of Delhi (see figure 3) to capture a deeper understanding of young female domestic work in Delhi. My intention was also to have a wide spread of the data collection to promote transferability of the study findings to similar urban areas in India and elsewhere.

1.1 Data collection sites

I collected data in five districts of the NCT of Delhi and in two districts, Gurugram (previously Gurgaon) and Noida, of the NCR of Delhi (see figure 3 for detailed information of the data collection activities).

Figure 3: Map of the data collection sites

Source: http://www.delhiunlimited.com/geography/geographical-map-of-delhi.htm

Most of the observations and interactions with the study participants took place in the local communities and in the homes of the participants. This brought the research assistant and myself to various community areas in Delhi. The following extract from my field diary provides an example portrait of one of the many homes we visited in the community areas for an interview:

The interview took place in the same location as last time, in their home.

It is a very small room, maybe three by three meters’ square. They have one big bed where all four of them sleep. The mother, the little brother and the two sisters. They have a cooking stove and there are shelves all over each wall with clothes, items and crockeries. Despite the fact that the room is tiny and packed with their belongings, it has a pleasant and welcoming feeling. In fact, the whole lane is full of life and the

community dwellers are always curious and want to converse when we come. The mother is so friendly and inviting. She mentioned when we left that now when we know how to reach the house on our own, we were welcome to come at any time. We mentioned that we would be very interested in coming to interview her, as part of the parent’s perspective.

She agreed.

Source: Field diary, 24 September 2015

Pilot group session

Each community area that we visited was unique regarding its size, its population and its demographics. Some areas were more advanced than others concerning sanitary facilities and standard of living.