Poonam S Argade

In this research, I will study the experiences of organizers with Pani Haq Samiti (Water Rights Campaign) who live in informal settlements across Mumbai and organize for water access in their own communities and are involved in the movement for water rights at the city level. The goals of the project are to understand the everyday experiences of water access and organizing in Mumbai and document organizers’ stories as a counterhegemonic record of the cities’ history of resistance. Thus, I propose an ethnographic study documenting narratives of organizers living in different informal settlements mobilizing for water sanitation rights, particularly their engagement with the state, community, and other actors. It will include documentation of organizers’ life stories and their engagement with regional histories of caste, class, religion, and gender politics. This research is situated within the broader theoretical frameworks of urban anthropology, transnational and intersectional feminist perspectives and critical development studies. The primary method for the study is feminist ethnography, including life history interviews, and archival research. The objective is to engage the perspectives and knowledge of hitherto marginalized voices, organizers from settlements as theories rooted in their lived experiences.