Urban Asias – Essays on Futurity Past and Present

190 V. Whose Futurity?
have a place in the vernacular they have come to develop when asked about
the future. As Sarojamma declared, “I am really poor but there is nothing I
can do about it”. In their work on scarcity, Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar
Shafir consider how such conditions create a “scarcity trap” which not only
inhibits the ability to handle unforeseen events, but even the ability to prepare
for predictable events, such as school fees, which themselves become
“emergencies” due to the lack of available financial preparation; “to the poor
juggling their finances, they only become real when they are imminent”. 27
Strengthening the Capacity to Aspire
How then, can the capacity to aspire be strengthened for women
like Sarojamma? NGOs and unions across the city are employing an array
of methodologies to collaborate with and unite workers (both retired and
active) and most importantly, give them their own “voice”. 28 Channamma,
a woman in her seventies, is a retired construction worker. I last saw her at
the town hall speaking to a local news crew during the “bisi uta” (hot meals)
protest for retired informal workers regarding the withdrawal of the midday
meal for pensioners in slums (see Figure 16.3). Channamma stopped
working in construction when FEDINA, a local NGO, provided her with
leadership training and since then has achieved much in cultivating her own
voice. She speaks confidently and eloquently in Kannada, telling me how
the organization “trained us to voice our plight in front of the world” and
“told us … we must therefore learn to stand upright ourselves without any
support from others”. What then, do such capacity building missions as
leadership training achieve?
Channamma and other members of her community formed their
own organization (AIKEKA) representing pensioners, construction, and
domestic workers: “we began to raise funds by ourselves, now we receive donations
from the local community and also through registration fees given
to us by individuals”. AIKEKA promotes equal pay for female construction
workers and campaigns for retired informal sector worker’s rights. Despite
being lathi-charged 29 and arrested whilst picketing the former Chief Minister
of Karnataka’s residence, Channamma has fought for (and “won”) her
pension. According to Appadurai, such success is attributable to the ability
of women such as Channamma to utilise both the navigation systems and
cultural reference points of the various state figures, NGOs and activists she
engages with, whilst employing a vernacular that is accessible to her own
community. This, Appadurai claims: