Know Why Architect Gita Balakrishnan Is Walking 1700 Km On Foot

Creating awareness about design? How does that sound to you? Architect Gita Balakrishnan has embarked on a 1700km walk from Kolkata to Delhi. Balakrishnan is on a mission to create awareness about our built environment and how good design can play a substantial role in changing lives. SheThePeople caught up with her while she was in Madhya Pradesh. 

Currently, she is travelling with a four-member team; a photographer, a videographer, and two logistics managers. They plan to reach Delhi by 24 April.

Gita, who founded Ethos in 2002, took to running in 2014 and since then has become quite a running enthusiast. She shares, "I've to get out of my bed four days a week and go running. I've been doing 21k every Saturday, Covid or no Covid I've been hitting the road. When I read about Sunil Dutt and Priya Dutt walking from Mumbai to Amritsar I had beautiful visuals in front of me of how one would encounter the change in landscape and culture. I started toying with the idea of walking and also what I would do during that walk. It took about four years to conceptualise the Walk of Arcause.”

 The rich diversity of the country

In our country, the landscape constantly changes with every few kilometres, and so do the culture and the architecture. Gita recounts that “It's amazing how we see the change. If you talk about unity in diversity I'm experiencing it.”

Adding, “When we started from West Bengal, the soil was more reddish and the weather was still cold and then we slowly moved on to warmer days and witnessed the changing colour of soil and the difference in humidity levels."

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“We saw a lot of mud and thatch in Bengal. As we entered Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, we started seeing Khaprail,” the architect adds.

Women on the roads

We spoke to her about how the visibility of women outside of the house has changed as she moves from the Urban to the rural. Gita says, “In cities, you generally see women out there a lot more. In West Bengal, we see women on bikes quite comfortably. In West Bengal girls were riding cycles to school and to work. As we came to Jharkhand we saw a change. The ghoonghat came on and they were a little more careful on wanting to be photographed, there was a bit of shyness as we were moving on.”

A Day In Gita's Life

Gita wakes up about 45 minutes before they set out from the hotel. She says, “I wake up to do my basic preparation and then I also do some stretches in the room.” Then they head out. “I spend about 10 minutes warming up then I get out and start walking. If it’s dark then I wear a head torch and I also have a car and a bike following me. I usually run and walk on alternate days. If it’s a running day I cover 19-20 km in 3 hours but if it’s a walking day then I would’ve done between 15-16 km.”

Meeting People on the way

“I'm sitting on the floor even if I'm at the Chai Shop where we are conversing with people, I'm sitting at someone's home talking to them. Recently, two brothers beckoned me from the other side of the road and they insisted I should go to their house and sit and talk to them and then I spent an hour with them because they told me how they built their house," she says.

Architect Gita Balakrishnan Is Walking 1700 Km on Foot

The response on the road

Gita says, “So not just a woman walking, but my attire is not a commonplace. I do wear my running tights, my t-shirt, I have a bandana and now I’ve started wearing this cap. I’m wearing a compression stocking. When it’s very dusty I’ve to take out a pair of sunglasses. I have seen a lot of people kind of standing on the roads. Particularly in Jharkhand, West Bengal and I think Madhya Pradesh we’ve seen large expansions with low density. But moving in towards UP I had a bunch of around 150 people surrounding me asking me questions.

“There have been people who have seen me in a medical store trying to figure out who I am and what I am here for while I halted since my ankle was hurting me. Of course, I am a mini-celebrity because there are people who are gonna come and say ‘Can I take a selfie with you?’ and things like that. I went ahead to this guy at the medical store who had gathered people there and they’ve bought me snacks and water and said that what you are doing is terrific and so on."

 Adding, “So there largely has been a lot of love and affection. There have been a couple of funny incidents or not so pleasant incidents. In one place there was this guy who was questioning me on why he should give me his shop front. But other than that there have been people who have questioned me and probed a little bit more. I don't mind that as they don't know what architecture is and they don't know why I should be walking for architecture. So it takes a little time explaining to them but no I haven't found any such behaviour.”

 Architecture as a profession and women

So what are the challenges women architects face today in India? Gita believes there are many, she says “When I graduated there were eight girls in my class of 40 which need not have been the standard number. However, I think today the number of girls is outnumbering boys in most of the colleges of architecture. Yes, you don’t find enough women leaders who are leading architectural firms and I say this with a sense of responsibility. Also particularly if they are unattached, that is, they are not a husband and wife firm or a father and daughter firm or brother and sister firm. On your own, you find that even less in terms of women leading firms and this is something that has been a matter of concern.” Gita graduated from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi.

“In Bengal, I got to know there are hardly any women construction workers on-site so if all the construction workers are male and if you’re the only woman architect going there to tell them what to do, it’s not the best of situations.”

Gita agrees that women do drop out from the profession probably a little more than men. She believes, “An architect’s job involves not just working out of an office but the workplace for an architect is also the site. It’s also travelling outside to locations. And particularly when it concerns the site and the market I don’t think enough has been done to make those places convenient for women or for all genders to work as well. For instance, simple things like safety, is it okay for a woman to go? In Bengal, I got to know there are hardly any women construction workers on-site so if all the construction workers are male and you’re the only woman architect going there to tell them what to do it’s not the best of situations.”

Architect Gita Balakrishnan Is Walking 1700 Km on Foot

Gita, however, signs off on a positive note, she tells us how in Latihaar which is in Jharkhand, she identified a Raani Mistri. A Raj Mistri is the main contractor or the main person and being a woman, she became Rani Mistri. Gita adds, “If more women are working on-site it's more likely that the entire construction force will accept decisions from a woman.”