After the excursion through Old Delhi, the research team was invited to visit the Department of Urban Design at the well-known School of Planning and Architecture. The School has an MoU with Heidelberg University and is planning collaborations on the level of advanced student teaching and research. Arunava Dasgupta, head of the department, proved to be an enthusiastic and knowledgeable colleague who introduced us to some of the students working on the fields of gender and public space, but also spoke about his involvement with safety audits conducted by various NGOs, for example, Jagori. He explained how by applying participatory methods of how to plan a city it was possible to generate a sense of safety to female citizens as they navigate through the city space in various moments of the day. Safety audits have caught much attention of urban planners, feminists, and citizens from all backgrounds in Delhi. They are based on the idea that a city like Delhi should provide equal access to and safe mobility for all citizens alike, and that several tactics of exclusion and ways of building cities facilitate a higher degree of threat and hassle to women’s autonomy and integrity. The Department of Urban Design is significantly engaged in training its students in order for them to gain outdoor (vis-à-vis studio) experience. As a result of this process, they are able to concentrate in qualitative data and participatory urban planning and design research by connecting with local groups and neighbourhoods. The goal here is not to depict cities in India as global cities. Instead, by collaborating with local groups and feminist organisations, it wishes to focus on particular issues on a local scale.

The lunch and afternoon sessions of HERA-team members, students and faculty from the SPA evolved around concrete research projects such as community-based urban design, city and real estate development, and urban planning for migrant populations. The central issue however was gender safety which addresses the topic of women’s mobility which can be imagined, contested and challenged through methods of urban design and planning.