Mithun Som

Sitting in her small glass partitioned office within her home, Kamala cuddles her labrador, and talks about her journey from a small town in central India to Hyderabad, from being a door to door saleswoman to being a real estate businesswoman. As her flat mates whom she calls her own family, left for their office and her help cleaned the house, Kamala talked about her coming out as a lesbian and her entry into real estate.

In a small hostel room made of plywood partitions, with four beds in a row, the bare minimum space to move around and no ventilation, Lipika talks about her story of coming from a coastal district of Andhra to Hyderabad. She talks about her engineering studies, her internship stint in ISRO and then now working in a small office in…

Smriti sits comfortably in the sofa of her small front room in her house, as her mother makes tea and pakodas for us and her son and some other small children play in the front of their house. She talks about her journey from being raised by a single parent in a small place in Andhra; working as a coolie at times to augment her mother’s income; coming to Hyderabad as she got a coveted job in a big media house; meeting her husband to be, getting married, and her passion for the job.

Sarada and Sirisha, the two sisters talk to us in their small room, as they also keep an eye on the rice being cooked on a small cylinder stove. They talk about their father’s ill health and not being able to earn money, about their decision of coming to the city to look for work, their work in an upscale departmental store and their life in the city.

Women have been migrating after marriage. Even today, migration due to marriage forms
the main reason why women migrate. However, in recent times, there is an increase in women migrating to the city for other reasons like work and education. Though this is a very small proportion of the overall women who are migrating, this is a significant category (Refer box item).

It is pertinent to note here that even though women always constituted the majority of the migrant population, because of the nature of their migration (after marriage) they are not viewed as ‘primary’ migrants, but rather as following the normal and expected course of their lives. Girls are brought up with the understanding that their parents’ home is temporary and that they belong to their marital home. In popular imagination, it is always the men who migrate in search of better pastures. Even in international academic literature, women’s migration was not given enough importance till the 1980s.

Therefore, the arrival of this small category of women coming for work and education
poses a significant shift. Firstly, in the way migrants are imagined and secondly, of women migrating and staying alone in the city. It breaks the norm of women moving from their parental home to marital home. This small window when they are not under the guardianship of family and relatives produces a certain anxiety in the fabric of society to “control women’s sexuality”. In this scenario, the various educational institutes, residential spaces and public spaces try to act as de facto guardians and impose rules and regulations.

The question therefore is, are the different spaces in the city like educational and job institutions, the residential spaces, public transport and public spaces of normal urban life geared to make way for these women? Is this increase in the number of women migrating to city reflected in their inclusion in the urban lexicon? Will it include them in the discussions of policy and of urban planning? A city like Hyderabad, is seen as a neoliberal success story—an IT and pharma hub that attracts scores of migrant women. Will this city accommodate the needs of these women?

To probe these questions, one needs to understand why these women come to the city. What does the city promise them? I look at this here, focusing on women who have come alone to the city of Hyderabad for work or education. In this context I explore the various factors which bring the women to the city. My essay is based on the research project of the City and Sexuality team of Anveshi, as part of which fifty women were interviewed from different backgrounds and in different vocations in Hyderabad.

Hyderabad, the City

Hyderabad is a city which has welcomed migrants, not just from the country but from other parts of the world in its 400 plus year history. Presently, about 24 percent of the present population in Hyderabad is migrant (census, 2011). The most recent surge of migration to Hyderabad has been in the 2000s.

It started with the kind of city centric development that took place in (erstwhile) Andhra Pradesh especially after the 1990s. The economic reforms and the political change in terms of the formation of a coalition government in the centre gave more power to the regional parties and to the states to pursue their economic policies. As the states got more autonomy, competition to get investors in their state grew. Service, and Information Communication and Technology (ICT) industries with infrastructure led development was an area which was also expected to grow fast. Other factors like supportive political change, technological advances, locational advantage in terms of time zones, lower wages, English language competency helped the growth of ICT and BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) in the urban areas of the country (Raju and Jatrana, 2016).

Andhra Pradesh saw the highest growth in this sector during early 2000s (Kennedy 2007). This also spiralled the increase of auxiliary business and services. To attract the investors, Hyderabad or rather a part of Hyderabad was projected as a global city with better roads, power, and other services. City centric projects that rely on huge infrastructure was given precedence. Large subsidies and concessions in land, labour laws, infrastructure, were provided. These policies brought in many big companies. This was interpreted as the success of the state (Kennedy 2007, Kamat 2011). However, other parts of the state, did not see such development and in fact the state lowered its investment in the agrarian sector (Reddy and Mishra 2010). Power and other services were diverted to Hyderabad at the cost of other districts of Andhra Pradesh.

This new face of the city also needed many people to work. The city needed the migrants to become a global city. The state had a substantial number of educated skilled workforce waiting to be absorbed in this sector from its numerous private engineering colleges. These engineering and medical colleges were set up from the agricultural surplus of coastal Andhra region which benefited from the green revolution. This was largely aided by the networks of Kamma and Reddy castes along with state support in terms of heavily subsidized land grants and other infrastructural support. With the growth of IT sector and outsourcing of services, “these private institutions were able to step in as the supply chain for technical labour for the global service industry” (Kamat 2011,194). Hyderabad is also known for its private medical care and education institutes. It is one of the first cities to expand privatized hospital care.

For many people from smaller districts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Hyderabad became the city of their dreams. The number of educational institutes, coaching centres, software and allied industries made this a desirable destination for young and educated migrants not only from the state but from other states as well.

Though our study focused on women who had come for a job and education, we found that different factors interplayed and there was no single narrative. We tried looking at the predominating reasons for their coming to the city.

Job and education opportunities

The villages and towns cannot cater to growing middle class aspirations either in education or in jobs resulting in mass migration to the major cities in India every year. The presence of numerous educational institutes and job opportunities drove many women to Hyderabad. As not many opportunities available elsewhere in the state, Hyderabad became the dream destination for people in Andhra and Telangana. Anika explains this saying, back in her hometown, success is recognized if children stay in Hyderabad. She says, “Hyderabad was a passion because my parents and all my neighbours respected you if you study in Hyderabad (shaan samajte). So even though I got campus accommodation in Kakatiya (University), I chose to study in Hyderabad in a normal college. Because of this passion, I came” . Working or studying in Hyderabad meant that the person has arrived.

It was assumed that if you work hard and put enough effort, you can succeed in a big city. Smriti says, “because it is a huge city we have more opportunities. If we want to do anything, we can do it here, so many opportunities are there…..I have some confidence. I want a profession in which if I put hard work, career growth will be there. So, I chose Hyderabad for my career growth and personal growth”.

However, with the bifurcation of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, things are changing now as Sonia puts it, that when she came 10 years back, Hyderabad was the only option, now other cities like Vishakhapatnam are coming up but at that time, it was understood that after doing engineering, one has to go to Hyderabad. “It was normal,” she said.

Women also came from other states and they either explored or thought about other options as well before deciding about Hyderabad. Kamala coming from a town from central India says, that her place is good for education but there is no scope for her kind of jobs over there. She started her career in Pune and then came to Hyderabad.

Even as these women coming from relatively better off families, came for better avenues of work, there were women for whom getting a job was an economic necessity.

Economic necessity

There were women belonging to less well to do families who needed to work to support their homes. Most of these women, having finished at least their schooling, came from villages which did not provide any avenue of work for these women. So these women came out and started working as mall workers, nurses etc. As they send about 70-80 percent of their income back to their villages, it becomes the primary income for their families.

Sarada- Sirisha are two sisters from a village in Warangal. Their father fell sick and was no longer capable of earning. So these two sisters came to Hyderabad looking for work, and a cousin of theirs helped them. One sister has a bachelor’s degree and another has passed her twelfth class. They got a job as a cashier and as a saleswoman in one of the fancy departmental store. Together they make 16,000 rupees per month of which they keep just 4000 rupees for themselves and send the rest home. Their life in the city is mainly standing for 10 hours in the store, coming back, cooking and sleeping. The off day that they get is devoted to household chores and getting the much-needed rest.

Ana finished her nursing course and having no opportunities in the village shifted to Hyderabad where she joined a private hospital. She along with her sisters send most of their income back home to their parents, keeping the bare minimum to survive for themselves.

Their coming to the city is to help their family survive.

Political disturbances

The political disturbances in some of the states in India like Kashmir, and the North Eastern states also led to migration. Women coming to Hyderabad from these states found Hyderabad to be a safe destination and had numerous opportunities. Conflict in their home state have resulted in the severe restriction of education and job options. They could not see any future there. Rafia came from a northern state of India. Her father had been killed when she was very young. She came to a central university to do her PhD as a PhD in her home state can take anything between five to eight years depending on the situation. She explains the situation, she says, “One thing in my home university was that the maximum time, the maximum for M.Phil. is three years but that continues for another three to four years. Then think, how long the Ph.D. will take. I told mother this thing that imagine if I do my M.Phil., Ph.D. here, then it will continue till 2020. then when will I start working?……Generally, the problem there is that tomorrow is your exam and today the situation is bad (halat kharab ho gayi) then there is total shut down. So, because of these issues, the condition is like that. This is why my mother allowed me to come here”.

Pritibala coming from Assam talks about the ethnic conflict that gripped her hometown in 2003. She says, “first it was a conflict between the militant groups of these communities and then later even the commoners were massacred. And even they started seeing this as a war between the two communities. It affected all of us” . She talks about the way this affected their lives, she said, “I still remember that this created a lot of tension and rift and a lot of suspicion, even between my school friends”. She had no plans but had to move to the capital city in her state for her plus two. Talking about her friends in her hometowns, she said, “many of us, I think 90% of the population moved to Guwahati because of the conflict, to pursue their higher education”. She later came to Hyderabad for higher education, as her father did not want to send her to Delhi.

Abuse at home

City for some women also becomes the safe space, not just from their home state, but at times from their own homes. A few women narrated abusive experience at their own homes or in relationships and were looking for a way out. The city provided them that space where they could start with their new lives. Akansha being the unwanted girl child of her parents, had faced abuse at her home. She was asked to fend for herself after her schooling and she decided to move out of that place. Her parents didn’t support her financially after school, she said, “till 12 they did, after that they stopped. I will have to do it myself. I never got any support from my family. No mental support, no financial support”. Akansha talks about her parents reaction when she wanted to move out, “They didn’t say yes, they didn’t say no. They were like you do whatever you want to do. It is your responsibility and headache”.

Shinjini was an orphan and was not treated well by her uncle and aunt with whom she stayed. After having being thrown out along with her grandmother, she found her way to Hyderabad to an orphanage through someone she knew. Having no one to go to, she could only think of Hyderabad.

Finding one’s identity

Hadasy talks about her desire to come to a city, she says, “I wanted to be free. Like I didn’t want constant pressure from family and friends and relatives to act a certain way. Like I wanted to discover myself. Like ‘who am I?’ That question no; like at home I must be a particular person…. Be a good daughter. Be a good sister. Be a good granddaughter. You know, I just wanted to remove all those… those labels and then explore, figure out what I am”.

Women like Hadasy want to come out of their parent’s home and live alone to understand their selves. They believed that moving to a new place will help them to develop themselves and give them the confidence. This need for an independent identity and sometimes the need to broaden their horizon and experience the city life living alone brought them to city and education or job were the medium through which they came.

Monika talks about her moving out, she says, “If once we go out from our native place, we will certainly get something. We will improve our communication skills, we will improve our education also. …. I came here to Hyderabad at the age of 16 years so I was very young at that time and I was innocent and ignorant at that time. And I after coming to Hyderabad, I started observing people, what do they do and what do they want to do in their life. And now I have the confidence and if you leave me anywhere in the world, I can come back. I have got the courage (himmat) now after coming to Hyderabad. So, I really feel a craze about Hyderabad”.

City gives hope

Even as these women have different reasons, the single thread that brings them here is the hope for a better opportunity and a better life. Does their migration actually lead to a better life? This depends on several things.

The first is the social and cultural baggage with which they arrive in the city: their caste, class, region and religion. Their location determines the kind of opportunities they can avail. For example, the educated middle class with training and confidence try and get into the high paying jobs like those in the software industry. Aspiring women with fewer class-cultural assets, but who have completed a professional degree, try to hone their skills by entering the coaching centres to get a better job. Women having no financial back up from home and whose families are dependent on them for their income, look for any opening they might get, be it malls, beauty parlours and only after a while, can they even afford to think of ways to better their career.

As the woman tries to break her boundaries and push further her aspirations may change with time with more exposure to the city and its people. What women do and how far they go depends on a complex of factors, their interaction with the institutions, their support network (both old and new), exposure to a different life, etc. The way the city accepts these women and allows them to explore and fully utilise its resources has a bearing on the lives of these women. Does the city provide them equal access to its educational and work spaces, public transport, residential spaces and its public spaces? Not yet. There is the socialpatriarchal anxiety of women living alone, of control of their sexuality and this anxiety is packaged in the discourse of safety and security.

In one of the central universities and a state university, women students have been asking for the removal of their curfew timings in the hostel so that they can access the university library which their male counterparts use till late in the night. In Delhi, the PinjraTod campaign have raised the question of charging higher rates for women’s hostels in the name of providing security. Single women in our study have talked about the difficulty in finding a house to rent in certain localities. However, at times, paying extra money for rent can resolve this issue. This implies that money can help trump the anxiety of a single woman living in the neighbourhood. (Rani Rohini Raman in her article have further explored this issue).

So even as women from different social locations land up in the city, does the city provide the same treatment to all? For example, while a free she-shuttle service is available in certain areas of the city for a certain class of women, it is not available for the mall workers or the GHMC workers or for women in other low paid jobs. Certain areas in the city are more accommodating to migrant women as their presence has boosted the IT sector and the economy. This is seen in the mushrooming of accommodations for single women in these areas. Within the constraints, these upper class-caste women have a higher access to the city and its resources.

It is important to note that the exposure to the city and living independently does not mean that the woman has full control over all spheres of her life: for example, even if she can decide to a certain extent about her career choices, the same may not be true for her marriage. However, her exposure to the city does give her confidence, she is able to live her life outside the protection of home and learns to take her own decisions. The question is whether she is able to continue with this new change that has been brought about by her new life in the city. Apart from the social and cultural capital she
accumulates, it is also dependent on what kind of support structure she has and the kind of networking she develops and retains, her sense of belongingness and comfort she feels in the city.

References: 

Census. 2011. Primary census abstracts. Registrar General of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.

Kamat, Sangeeta. 2011. ‘Neoliberalism, Urbanism and the Education Economy: Producing Hyderabad as a “Global City”’. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, May, 187–202.

Kennedy, Loraine. 2007. ‘Regional Industrial Policies Driving Peri-Urban Dynamics in Hyderabad, India’. Cities, Peri-Urban India Special Issue (pp. 89-147), 24 (2): 95–109. doi:10.1016/j.cities.2006.06.001.

Raju, Saraswati, and Santosh Jatrana. 2016. Women Workers in Urban India. Cambridge University Press.

Reddy, D. Narasimha, and Srijit Mishra. 2010. Agrarian Crisis in India. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.

Mithun Som works at Anveshi Research Centre for Women’s Studies, Hyderabad.

sommithun@gmail.com.