“As a woman, you should not touch machines,” Deeptiben (name changed), a 30-year-old worker from Dahod, described how she was denied opportunities to learn at a large construction site. Sugunaben (name changed), another 35-year-old migrant worker with over 15 years of experience in masonry assistance, said she has been told repeatedly how they (women) are only meant to be a helper.

Other women workers shared: “While we work, we have to take a ghunghat (veil), otherwise people will say we do not have sharam (shame) …our husbands say that we won’t be able to learn so it is better to work together”.

Such rebukes echoed across construction sites reflecting the gender bias that bars women from skill development and upward mobility, according to the Aajeevika Bureau-Work Fair and Free (WFF) re

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