Transformational mobility (TM) is at the zenith of autonomy in mobility. Mobility is gendered, that is, women who pursue work outside the household do not necessarily have the permission or decision-making power to move or to freely go to other private and public spaces. The mobility which is associated with work is limited owing to economic necessities. While analysing the significance of work as an activity for women to move outside the household and enhance her ‘capabilities’ by harnessing the ‘opportunities’ and freedoms that work can confer, Sen notes that movements outside the household for work is ‘capability enhancing’. However, I argue that taking ‘women's movement outside the household for work’ as an indicator of having greater freedoms or capabilities for mobilities is problematic in the cultural context of India. My research on informal women workers in fisheries brings to light the ‘limited’ or ‘bounded capabilities’ that constrain women workers in enhancing their potential and expanding freedoms.

Capability approach (CA) has enabled me to examine mobility using a ‘gender lens’ and at the same time not lose the cultural context. Feminist interpretation of mobility as gendered is highly individualistic and relates closely to personal autonomy. But I would rather prefer to interpret mobility as gendered in a relational autonomy context. Women, especially the poor and the marginalized informal workers whom I have interacted with and interviewed, are not ‘atomistic individuals’ detached from social and familial networks. They form an integral part of the social and societal framework. Hence, viewing their autonomy as a purely personal one may not enhance the understanding of mobility itself in the given sociocultural context. Relational autonomy also takes into account the social setting, and such a view will dovetail with CA underpinning the analysis which essentially acknowledges the diversities in terms of gender, caste, and culture in the evaluation of functioning and capabilities. Therefore, my central aim in the book is to unravel the concept of mobility and its various domains as experienced by informal women workers using CA and simultaneously unearth and introduce transformational mobility, which is ‘autonomy in mobility’ which very few women workers experience in everyday lives.