Gender disparity is age-old malevolence, deep-rooted unkindness, and splurge scrabbling in every sphere of women’s lives. Be it domestic, social, political, economic, or on the personal front, women are cowering at each level. All over the world, despite aggressive hubbubs in favor of the elimination of gender bias, women’s roles are getting marginalized because of this impropriety. This affects countless facets of the lives of women, from personal life to inherent dignity, career development to economic wellbeing, security and safety to mental health disorders, a viable part of the community to a catalyst of change, a bellicose environment to intimidating footraces, barriers to uphold autonomy onto the realization of rights, up-keeping and reinforcing gender typecasts, and many more. This has in turn had significant manifestations on the advancement and progression of women in society and hinders society’s pursuit of a civilized life. Resultantly, women as a compulsive minority are plagued with glitches of fierceness, pestering, and insecurity, living as vulnerable individuals at home and in public spaces, which is an unveiled common and prevalent practice in our urban areas. There is a growing realization to provide women with welfare, reverence, and self-respect by fashioning a gender-all-encompassing urban development. In an urban space, women require a wide range of amenity and pleasantness, including privy, empowerment, dignity, safe mobility, hygiene, access, roadside security, spirit to the soul, recreation, participation as a stakeholder, and others. Women have over the years struggled a lot and have almost remained out of bounds in the urban decision-making process, resulting in urban deprivation towards women by not taking cognizance of their aspirations, requirements, stresses, lives, happenings, and experiences, leading to the vilest form of disparities and segregations against them. Consequently, usability and access to urban services, facilities, utilities, and amenities, though conceived and designed for the wholesome development of aggregated urbanites, are mired to women, generating the wildest form of urban exclusion for almost half of the urban population.

Urban Inclusivity at the National Level

Customarily, cities and towns in India evolved and were conceived on the general planning principles of urban growth and development. Urban areas were apparently stimulated and proposed for wholesome development. In this process of promoting urban development, no consideration was given to gender equality or bias. Similarly, planning did not even incorporate provisions for specially abled people. Over the last 10–15 years, urban planning in India has taken a leap forward, gained momentum, and started to look into the distinctive needs of women and their special characteristic requirements to provide amenity and comfort for women in urban settings. To appreciate the urban inclusiveness of women in different urban areas of the country, a study has been conducted in various towns and cities of the country by a consultant group. The study conducted by Avtar consultants during November 2021 and 2022 on top cities for women has brought forth that, on account of women’s inclusivity, Indian cities on average scored just 37.75 out of 100. The research study was carried out regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), ranking about 111 big and small cities on their social and industrial inclusivity for women. The study clearly highlighted that there is a lot of scope with respect to inclusivity in most cities and towns. Out of 111 cities in 2022 and 113 in 2023, only nine scored above 50 in the city inclusion score (CIS), which is the average of the social inclusion score (SIS) and industrial inclusion score (SIS). For purposes of calculating SIS, the parameters include the Ease of Living Report by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, the Crime in India report by the National Crime Records Bureau, the Periodic Labor Force Survey and Census documents to understand women’s representation in the workforce, and the women empowerment initiatives undertaken by each state government. For the assessment and calculation of industrial inclusion, the study looked at the density of gender-inclusive organizations, industries, and career enablers like crèche facilities and mental health consultation services. This data is based on Avtar’s own research. The study was conducted between November 2021, 2022, and 2023. Among the cities studied by the consultants, Chennai was the most inclusive city for women in India, with a CIS of 78.41 followed by Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Mumbai with a score of 60. The cities of Lucknow, Ranchi, Guwahati, Patna, and Dhanbad scored poorly. Among small cities (population less than a million), Tiruchirappalli tops with a score of 71.61, followed by Vellore, Erode, Salem, and Tiruppur. Among small cities, Kavaratti, Muzaffarpur, Satna, Rampur, and Bhagalpur scored very poorly, which is a testimony to devitalized women's urban inclusivity.

Women's Empowerment and Urban Inclusivity in J&K

Women's empowerment, rights, and urban inclusivity in Jammu and Kashmir are also major concerns. Despite J&K's social, economic, and political transformation, gender disparities have not been eliminated, though their participation has significantly underwired women’s ability to reel through socio-economic predicaments. There is a yawning gap in educational level; about 58.01 percent of women are literate compared to 78.26 percent of men. The sex ratio as a major indicator of gender parity was already low and has shown a decline in J&K from 892 in 2001 to 883 in 2011 and 889 in 2021. The sex ratio among children of less than 7 years of age is also low (859 in J&K), which is indicative of the plight of women, the extent of discrepancies among genders, and gender bias. In J&K, women endure to be the most exposed and disparaged section of society, suffering from intense pestering, triviality, sinking with traumatic experiences, and prolonged downheartedness. For a host of reasons, women in Kashmir are grappling with complex socio-economic challenges that have bearing on their wellbeing, respect, dignity, health, frugality, edification, domestic life, population balance, female feticide and infanticide, vehemence, dowry harassment, safety, security, underpaid labor, and child labor. The central government, J&K Government, NGOs, and local bodies, through a number of women welfare schemes, have embarked on the empowerment of women in Jammu and Kashmir, but strides need to be taken to go the extra mile to bring harmony and equity for the women. Thus, despite modernization, socio-economic development, progress, and prosperity, J&K is reeling from women's exclusion and gender bias affecting their access to vital resources, which is a cause of underrepresentation. Some of the deeply imbedded social and cultural taboos in Kashmir are pretentiously exaggerated and do play a mayhem in creating gender bias by messing up the social fabric. One of the worst examples is marriages, which have become so exorbitant, discerning, and caste-based so much that, in pursuit of an elusive ideal match, unlimited sacrifices are made, which often go against the interests of the soft gender. This signifies a lack of space for women in the social setting, which is a testimony to how much space they are getting in the urban setting. In the 21st century, even though a lot of progress has been made, the world over Kashmir seems to be trailing in cognitive behavior distortions. The voyage of women in Kashmir is all complicated; their every pursuit is beleaguered and soiled by shallow societal vilification and judgments.

Need for Urban Inclusivity of Women

The world is urbanizing at an unprecedented pace, with cities and towns developing at an accelerated rate, generating and posing a wide variety of complex challenges. In the face of speedy urban growth, a vast majority of women worldwide living and working in urban areas do not have the same access to public spaces and services offered by the urban area. In an unequal environment, women find themselves precariously insecure in urban public spaces compared to men. The prevailing mainstream gender approach and practices in cities and towns without adopting a realistic participatory bottom-up approach to make it more inclusive processes and provide provide niche for empowerment to the deprived. To make it all encompassing, broad-based, and inclusive to a cross-section of urban society, urban decision-making and implementation urban development projects evolve and incorporate decisive factors in shaping the cities and towns without leaving scope for partiality, which construes marginalization and discrimination. Through incorporating rational planning and the participation of all stakeholders, gender bias can be mitigated while framing development plans, master plans, urban regeneration schemes, planning projects, and policies. Urban inclusivity shall form the core of urban policies and strategies for achieving gender harmony and gender-based composite urban social development. Thus, all-inclusive urban planning and development has to encompass and cover the multiple essentials, likings, and predilections of women. It shall focus on developing cities and towns that are all-encompassing, secure, manageable, resilient, viable, and sustainable to meet the requirements of the whole urban community. It has to probe and explore how inclusiveness in urban planning and development fosters harmony in an amalgamated and metamorphosed urban population despite diversity, disparity, andgender orientations. It is definitely a herculean task but is an achievable goalmouth to outline the contours of urbanity as a responsive and accessible virtuous opportunity. In India, through the Smart City Mission and AMURIT schemes, major cities are being reshaped, revitalized, and reimagined in the emergent social and economic milieu, with some elements of inclusiveness and gender responsiveness being infused in urban planning and design, which is gaining acceptance not only in urban regeneration and renaissance but also as a new expression of urban development. This approach embroils the remodeling of project planning practices, archaic urban design strategies, and policies to reimagine and rethink gender-specific issues. In the process, it has started to imbue a balance in the urban planning profession; urban designers’s concepts and urban policymakers' decisions are collectively changing the paradigm of urban development. More absorbing and assimilating gender perspectives in urban planning are needed in India to reinvigorate the decision-making environment, further women's empowerment by boosting their participation as viable urban stakeholders, stimulate women as a dynamic force in urban activities, and promote overall welfare. As India is heavily investing in women's empowerment, their all-round participation is bound to play a significant role in economic development, especially in cities. It is bound to transform cities, and in bargain urban areas, responsive repayment can empower women living and working there by rethinking urban policies to provide an enabling and supportive environment for them. This would require carrying out in-depth research studies to provide baseline information indicating the behavioral aspects of women from different streams, the capacity of cities, gaps, responsiveness, and efficacy of prevailing policies to flourish women’s participation in the urban economy and urban development. In the past and even at present, cities and towns favor a stereotyped male perspective and legislation, codes, statues, etc. Policies and strategies are mostly not wholesome, promoting judicious urban development like walkways, paths, curbs, and pavements, unable to accommodate parents with strollers. Additionally, there is a lack of regulation protecting non-male genders. Pestering and harassment are common acts of annoyances from which women suffer and predominantly go unnoticed, due to a host of reasons in urban spaces. Few cities have safety and accountability structures to curb these activities; most of the urban areas are missing them, which completely deprives women of the opportunity of the opportunity to excel and thrive in a competitive urban environment.

Role of Urban Planners for Gender Inclusiveness

Inclusion of women professionals in the field of planning can enable us to shape more all-encompassing perspectives in cities and towns by creating urban settlements that cater to everyone’snecessities. Urban planning has, until recently, been a male-dominated profession, and it has left indelible imprints on what finally transpired on the ground. Women planners who better understand the requirements, ladies and girls, would require greater advocacy in the urban planning professional realms and education, speaking out against missing links between city development and women necessitating to root out emerging discrimination. Reportedly, there is one woman planner for every two men planners in the urban planning profession in the United States, and this has remained the same since more than a decade. This may be because of a lack of incentives or interest in pursuing a career in the planning field. This has limited their participation and influence in urban decision-making and planning. The situation was no different in our country; however, the trend seems to be going through a significant change, which is a positive sign for ensuring greater inclusivity of women in cities and decision-making. A mindset shift would significantly improve the chances for gender-inclusive workplaces to change cities.
Urban planning in J&K
Urban planning, despite its modest beginning in the 1950s, is still in its formative stage. The towns and cities are reeling through a complete disorderly growth and spontaneity. Planning exercises have never been completed, and every time plans are formulated, they are left unimplemented, defeating the objectives of whatever little exercise is made. Zonal plans, a key requirement for transpiring master plans on the ground, have never been ventured, which elucidates the apathy and defines the gusto of planners and planning agencies. In all current urban planning scenarios still at their low ebb, neither there are sufficient planners nor plans for cities and towns, virtually tantamounts to “no planning,” which is resulting in a complete urban mess in an ecologically fragile ecosystem full of susceptibilities and vulnerabilities, not to mention urban exclusion of women. Therefore, talking about gender-inclusive cities and towns may sound Greek to all concerned, but it is a realistically impending and inescapable requirement. The current planning scenario poses complex challenges to ensure urban centers for all genders and walk-through cities, encompassing varied voices for inclosing plans and policies for development to fulfill the aspirations of all. Conceiving and designing infrastructure requirements with numerical anticipation is a simpler exercise, but it is not anticipated in an earnest manner, which also prevents all genders from enjoying and experiencing the plenteousness and opportunities provided in urban areas. The rapid population growth and spatial sprawl make prioritizing gender inclusivity in urban areas one of the most critical aspects for cities and towns. As more people migrate for the promise of a better life, Srinagar metropolis has to achieve that goal; otherwise, the prevailing disparities will only foster weakened human resources and even a greater gap in society between genders. For the cities of J&K to be truly inclusive and equitable, their physical and social infrastructure needs to be designed and revamped accordingly. These need to have, among others, well-articulated and accessible public transport, well-lit streets, sufficient width of footpaths, medical care, and child-care facilities. Since women’s experiences in our cities remain very different from men's, a lack of equitable infrastructure hinders their ability to move around and participate freely in the city’s daily affairs. The inclusiveness of cities was advocated and adopted in 2015 by the United Nations, signifying the importance of the “Sustainable Development Goal,” which includes a call to transform cities into inclusive, safe, and resilient places, with an emphasis on women and girls.

Bottom Line

J&K being a tourist region, its urbanites,women from the countryside, and tourists do not have a common and universal urban familiarity and experience. Dissimilarities in class, caste, religion, gender, age, disability, marital status, etc. often result in diverse forms of exclusion in the cities, towns, and tourist towns, affecting their ability to access, navigate, and participate. Further, all women do not experience cities or towns in the same vein. The use of urban space and the activities undertaken by women depend on everyday life experiences. Hence, they need to be examined and explored for how to respond to their everyday needs in a changing urban milieu. The approach to rethinking and reshaping the urban space for inclusivity and equity has never had as much traction as today and has gained momentum over the last few years. Urban policies need to embrace meekness and recognition to recast the limits of reinvigorating urban ambience for women.

Emails:---------------- hamwani24@gmail.com /sanjanapurohit@yahoo.in