DOI 10.60531/INSIGHTOUT.2024.2.11| CHANDRAGIRI, DAS: INDIA-PAKISTAN BORDER INFRASTRUCTURE_ INSIGHTOUT 2(2024) 80Infrastructure:gendered implicationsDue to the isolation of the borderland,many women find it hard to fulfil their fundamental needs, and there is a high degreeof dependence on men to manage certainbasic necessities.For instance, many girls are not able to receive higher education because the colleges are far away andthere is no easy transport provision. Women dependon men for transport as there are no bus services inthe region. Also, due to a lack of public spaces, women are almost invisible in civil spaces. Moreover, thecurfew imposed every night further diminishes thespaces women occupy.We are not scared to go out, but[it’s] just thatthere are no requirements that occur for us to goout at night. It would have been about six months[ago] now,[since then] I have not gone out at all.– Raman Kaur, female, 45, MulakotThe traditional gendered division of labour, with menengaged in hard labour on farmlands and womenengaged in unpaid household labour, is the way oflife people in the village adhere to. The fence restricts women from going to the farmlands near theborder. The village folks consider women accessingmilitarised, masculinised spaces to be against theexisting gender norms. Women consider the placerisky and do not venture to areas near the fence.Also, there are bureaucratic hurdles for women tocross the fence. If there is a need for women to go tothe other side, BSF women are required to be calledto check and frisk them. They have to come from another post and therefore it is a time-consuming process. Women consciously try to avoid everyday engagement with the military. Our study also found thatthe sarpanches(village heads) of both the villagesare women but it is their husbands who hold authority at the grassroots. One of the sarpanches evenmentioned that she had never interacted with theBSF to date. The sarpanch seats in these constituencies are reserved for women, and thus it is by virtueof their gender that they hold the position. However,their role in managing matters of village administration is very limited. One of the reasons for this is therestrictive nature of the border architecture and itsrelated practices. Socio-spatial relations limit the opportunities for women to exercise their agency freely.ConclusionWhen areas of Punjab became a borderland, theywitnessed an increase in restrictive infrastructureand developmental progress stalled. The threats attached to borderlands led to the adoption of bounded infrastructures and this set them in isolation. Thepolitics of identity formation are directly related tothe practices of production of space. As women moveto the fringes of the nation state, the space becomesnarrower for them to interact and assert their agency. This leads to the creation of subjugated identities,with women being mostly invisible in public spaces.
