ABSTRACT
A substantial portion of those who labor on construction sites in India are women (approximately 30 percent). As women working in a patriarchal environment, Indian women face particular risks to their well-being and security that are often overlooked by scholars and policy-makers. Even scholars of Human Security have paid scant attention to the ways that Indian women construction workers conceptualize and experience their particular challenges. To deeply understand Human Security – particularly how to enhance it – in this local context, we must explore the interactions between security and agency, along with gender and caste. My time observing and interviewing women construction workers at a variety of locations in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai reveals the way in which issues of Human Security are pertinent for them. They could be seen exercising agency in manifold ways – and in ways that suited their particular purposes.
