It has been only a few decades since the Saranyas, a Nomadic community originally from Rajasthan, started settling down. The Saryana Vas in Jashodanagar is one of their
settlements, highly crowded, with 350 odd households living in extremely poor housing and inadequate amenities. This settlement is situated next to the GIDC and the Punitnagar
Railway crossing on one side and the Bharwad colony on the other. With very narrow lanes it has not been possible to lay pipes to facilitate water supply in this settlement; and there is
no space to build toilets too. This leads to serious difficulties, especially for women. As they do not have a proper water source in their colony, the women are forced to go and beg for
water in the neighbourhood. The Bharwads and other communities living around abuse them and refuse to give them access to their municipal water sources. The Saranyas are also forced to defecate in the open; the women complain how they are subjected to abuse and indignity all the time.

The community is steeped in superstition. Child marriage is common. The men used to go around in different colonies and sharpen knives in the traditional manner using a particular kind of stone that is rotated by hand or pedal. Now this mode of sharpening is not much in demand. The men also weave the traditional cots with ropes or plastic rolls. Even this service is also not so much in demand, with changes that have come across in the design of cots. The men are thus generally unemployed, and a significant number of them get addicted to alcohol. Divorce rates in the community are high, with women having no choice but to leave their abusive and violent husbands.

Saranya women make a living by collecting waste material that has scap/market value from waste/garbage dumps in different parts of the city. By and large, the men of the community do not have any stable means of livelihood; so the burden falls squarely on the women to fend for the household. This forces them to go into unsafe areas – both in terms of hygiene and physical safety.

Anjuben (Name changed) narrated several instances when women of Saranyavas had to face (and still face) sexual assault in the unsafe waste dumps they frequent. Many a time they go early hours in the morning before sunrise and at night; at times in the afternoon. Once very early morning before sunrise Anjuben and 2 other women from Saranyavas were segregating waste in a waste dump in the vicinity of GIDC. 4-5 men came towards them; there were no other people around. Anjuben and the other women started running away from them. Anjuben managed to escape; but one of the women was caught and sexually assaulted by those criminals. She could see what was happening as she ran; she reached home and narrated what happened to her husband and other family members. But they strictly warned her not to talk about it to anyone in the neighbourhood lest her honour would be questioned. She wanted to report the incident to the police, also for the sake of her friend who was assaulted, but she was prohibited from saying a word.

In another instance she was going back home from Vishala circle to Narol. The auto driver suddenly took a turn into a desolate area in the ravines on the bank of the Sabarmati river. He stopped in a place and tried to assault her. She pushed him aside and ran towards the highway, where she found another loading rickshaw who stopped seeing her frantically waving. She requested to take her to Narol, and narrated what happened. Shockingly, he told her that she should not take this seriously; it would be much better and advantageous if she took some money from such people and yielded to their wishes. She was shocked and enraged. But that is the reality in which the waste-picking women have to live and work in..

This was the last time that Anjuben went for waste-picking. She decided to go for other casual labour. Currently she does loading and unloading soil on tractors, in construction sites. It is far harder labour, which she is not used to, but she has no choice. Her husband is addicted to alcohol and loiters around. If she did not work the entire family would go hungry. In the series of meetings that CfD held in Saranyavas of Jashodanagar, the women collectively brought up this issue of their safety. The Samaveshi Shaher Committee that was formed is almost an all women committee, and they have decided to take this issue seriously. During the meetings and the training, the women realized that this is not an issue that cannot be resolved. The training gave them a strong perspective on their rights as citizens, particularly as women. Although they have had negative experiences from the police, they learned how to ensure that the police took them seriously. They learned about the power of knowledge and information; how they need to write applications, complaints and memoranda, to the police and to other authorities. They have already planned to approach the authorities with memoranda regarding water shortage in Saranyavas, the issue of their security at work-place, appealing to the police to ensure their safety.