‘Animated Thinking’ – A Room in Mumbai is released on BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer has released ‘A Room in Mumbai’, an animated film based on Dr Anika Haque’s research at the University of Cambridge, led by Dr Minna Sunikka-Blank, in collaboration with departments of Architecture, Geography, Engineering and Business School along with Indian partners (IIT-Mumbai and Doctors for you). The film was produced in collaboration with Calling The Shots, AHRC and BBC Arts. It is part of AHRC ‘Animated Thinking’ film series, combining research and professional animation.
Haque, a Lecturer in Human Geography at SAC explained “animation is a powerful way of communicating with a non-academic audience, and the AHRC and BBC are doing a great job, selecting the studies that have made significant impact and helping us to amplify that. The reports from this study were widely publicised (e.g. we organized round tables with all the public stakeholders), it had a major steer in the Indian media, and garnered a lot of media coverage.”
The film is about the gender vulnerability in Slum rehabilitation housings in India. In Mumbai where the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) is building high-rise flats to house former slum residents, but this transition has adversely and radically transformed the lives of women, but not necessarily for better.
In slums, so much activity is undertaken by the women outside, but in SRA housing the cooking, cleaning and childrearing practices have all moved inside. The design of the buildings fails to deliver sufficient daylight and ventilation, but fans and light costs money and women are forced to choose discomfort and distress resulting in health problems, no access to childcare and no jobs. The film tells the story of one woman in the process of moving to SRA housing using original interviews recorded on-site with animation by Gabriela Bran.
Sunikka-Blank, M., Bardhan, R. and Haque, A. N., 2019. Gender, domestic energy and design of inclusive low-income habitats: A case of slum rehabilitation housing in India, Energy Research & Social Science, 49, pp. 53-67. doi:10.1016/j.erss.2018.10.020
Bardhan, R., Sunikka-Blank, M and Haque, A. N., 2019. Sentiment analysis as tool for gender mainstreaming in slum rehabilitation housing management in Mumbai, India, Habitat International, doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2019.102040.