Qurratul Ain Contractor

Qurratul Ain Contractor is a 28-year-old from Mumbai, currently based in Auroville, Tamil Nadu. As a student of architecture, while the curriculum focused on building, Ain was more occupied with what to make and wondered if the physical environment humans were preoccupied with the installation was genuinely catering to human needs. With a quest for an alternative interpretation of development and an interest in ecological regeneration, she moved to work in Auroville, an intentional community known as a successful reforestation project. In 2018, working with EcoPro, she initiated a participatory watershed management program in rural Tamil Nadu with a tribal society. Since the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, she has been campaigning for Universal Water Access with a Mumbai-based collective called Pani Haq Samiti. Ain is a compulsive communicator and dreamer. She expresses her ideas by writing articles, poetry, drawing, and story-telling.