Sheela has been married for 16 years. She came to Mumbai from her hometown near Benares after she had two children. For the first few years she lived in Malad (East). The first zhopdi she built with her husband and a little help from her neighbours. They bought some bricks, a few asbestos sheets, bamboos and constructed a barely livable home. She says that when she first came to Makarandnagar seven years ago — there were only two chawls and everything else was rice fields. They moved here because the factory her husband worked in had relocated to Gokhiware.
Sheela describes how her day revolved around water. “Somebody always keeps an eye on the tap to check when water comes, or rather, when the gaonwale say we can fill water. Then we go and queue up but don’t get more than two cans at a time. Sometimes we go three to four times a day. Our men don’t bother with this, they say it is a woman’s job — “Ghar ka kaam hai”. So, all of us women go and fight about water with the landlords. Often the landlords beat us.” Sheela matter of factly says, “We don’t get water because we are Uttar Bhartiya. If we were Marathi they would have given us water”.
