INVISIBLE IN PLAIN SIGHT

My account of these women – Salma also known as Aapa,Kajol, Annu, Rani – and of several others I have seen, interacted with and understood and am still in the process of understanding, is not a work of fiction. Rather, it is based on real-life human beings and the experiences I had while serving as Postmaster General of Mumbai, and while initiating a socio-financial inclusion project in Kamathipura– the red-light district in Mumbai – a name that sent shame down the spine of many a respectable woman.

What started as a mere job to be done gradually transformed into a poignant journey full of emotions; a journey of both hope and despair.

Through the project, I was drawn into a world I had never really experienced before – one that contains not the ‘immoral women’, but rather the real, resilient and immensely courageous women who are warriors; for whom life has been synonymous with a bloody battlefield where they are forced to fight every single moment …

Swati Pandey is a distinguished bureaucrat whose twentysix-year-long journey across India Post, the Department of Atomic Energy and the Government of Maharashtra has been defined by innovation, empathy and impact.

An expert in infrastructure and project management, she currently serves as Vice Chairman and Managing Director of the Maharashtra Airport Development Company, where she is responsible for pioneering aviation projects like the Shirdi Airport and South Asia’s largest Flying Training School in Amravati.

A National Award-winning filmmaker (Elephants Do Remember, 2019) and author of Dawn Under the Dome, she brings together policy and storytelling with rare finesse. As Postmaster General of Mumbai, she conceptualized Project Kamathipura – a Harvard-recognized case on the financial inclusion of sex workers – and led the restoration of the iconic Mumbai GPO. Swati is a recipient of the Homi Bhabha Award of Excellence, a TEDx speaker, an Indian School of Business (ISB) alumna, a textile connoisseur and a conservation enthusiast.