Against the odds: Gendered politics of labour, infrastructure and claim-making in Kolkata’s poor localities

The chapter focuses on the social implications of urban restructuring and the gendered effects of these processes on poor and marginal communities in Indian cities. It draws on empirical research with women belonging to communities that are located in heterogenous, middle-class dominated neighbourhoods of Kolkata and Salt Lake, West Bengal, highlighting the daily interactions with the socio-political sphere and struggles to access limited amenities that shape everyday lives. The chapter focuses on aspects of labour engaging with lacking or inadequate infrastructures using the example of water, it discusses under which circumstances poor women have mobilised to provide support and resources to their communities under conditions of crisis due to the Covid 19 pandemic, andthe conditionalities of political intervention under conditions of scarcity and patriarchal regimes.