Society
On the wings of dreams
RANJITA BISWAS
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At the Seventh National Congress, Dalit women, with unique problems, set their own agenda for action.
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Photo: P. Goutham
Struggle for Justice: Dalit women at a rally.
THE words more than the tune of Saraswathi’s song, “We Build”, caught the attention of the huge congregation of women at Kolkata’s Netaji Indoor Stadium, hosting the Seventh National Conference. Her self-composed song ran:
220;We suffocate, we feel crashed/ Our dreams will break the walls/ We will transcend like thousand rivers, merge together in the sea.” Saraswathi started with a self-introduction: “I stand here as a Dalit woman, not as a downtrodden woman.” She belongs to Paurkarmika, the union of sweepers in Bangalore Municipal Corporation primarily comprising of women.
Platform for dialogue
Dalit women’s voices from different parts of the country were heard prominently at the conference in Kolkata. Since 1980, held every two to five years, the National Conferences have provided a platform for women to come together to share, dialogue, debate and sharpen their politics while trying to understand responses to issues and strategies. The Kolkata session saw about 2,300 participants, struggling individually and collectively, and sharing their views and experiences.
A separate session was set aside for Dalit women whose special problems, even within the ambit of the feminist movement, came into focus. Of the estimated 200 million Dalits in India, around 50 per cent are women, often referred to as “thrice Dalit”, suffering from the triple oppressions of poverty, being “female” and being female Dalits. Mary Grey in her article, “Dalit Women and the Struggle for Justice in a World of Global Capitalism” (Feminist The ology, Sage) points out that, among the many discriminations that Dalit women face, like denial of access to education, meaningful employment, health provisions etc, the worst is violence in many forms (including temple prostitution); they are also
frequently raped to humiliate Dalit men, something quite common even today. The degrading work of “scavenging” also falls mostly on Dalit women, since men are more likely to be “upwardly-mobile”.
Questions of belonging
It was at the Tirupati session of the Conference (1994) that Dalit women joined in large numbers for the first time to put up their views and problems. Their problem is not of caste alone but also of a feeling of getting sidelined by men in the Dalit movement itself and even within the women’s movement of the country. As participant Rajni Tilak articulated, “For 50 years we’ve questioned whether we are part of the women’s movement.” Activists of Saheli, an NGO from Delhi, which facilitated this session, opined that “It’s an important space for talking about it.” It is interesting, Saheli observed, that even in the media, a Dalit woman is projected as no less a stereotype — with a broom in her hand, and in job placement too they get a short shrift as revealed by a survey conducted by them.
On the other hand, being a part of the overall Dalit movement has not given Dalit women the space they have sought, many of the participants admitted frankly. M. Swathy Margaret, a Dalit scholar from Andhra Pradesh, made a scathing observation on being a woman and a Dalit in an editorial in Insight magazine, brought out by the Dalit students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University: “Brutal patriarchy within Dalit communities is one issue which repeatedly appears in Dalit feminist
discourses.… The Dalit ideologues like Katti Padma Rao, Gopal Guru and Gaddar seem to be less sensitive to the internal patriarchy of Dalit communities. They maintain that all women are Dalits. Since the upper caste women are not allowed to enter into their kitchens and are treated as impure during their menstrual periods, they are also untouchables!”
Recalling her introduction to college life in Hyderabad, she wrote: “I saw urban, fluent-in-English, extremely confident women, who called themselves feminists but with whom I could hardly talk to. When I did talk to them I was struck by their confidence, their go-get attitude. There were no shared fears, pleasures or problems with them.”
It was in this context that the considerable presence of Dalit women in the Conference demanding to be heard and not submerged was an interesting development. They believe in fighting for justice, like other women groups, but with their assertive presence, not as subdued partners. Mary Grey observes that despite their problems, a new strength is emerging among Dalit women to challenge caste boundaries, contributing to self esteem and a stronger sense of identity. At the recently held The Hague Conference on Dalit Women’s Rights, the first international conference of its kind, Dalit women boldly shared their problems and looked for solutions.
Assertive voices
In the Kolkata gathering too, there was an unmistakable aura of assertiveness among Dalit activists, showcased by women like Saraswathi, Fatima Burnad of the Tamil Nadu Dalit Women’s Network, or Kashibai of Solapur whose family belongs to the Devdasi profession. “When I was young I was not allowed to draw water from the village well. I didn’t understand why. I asked my grandmother and she told me one day I would have my own well.” At school, she recalls, she had to sit a little apart from the other students. But it was the teacher who stopped this segregation. “I got strength from women like her and to fight for my rights.” Today, her grandmother’s dream has come true. Kashibai proudly reveals that she owns 100 acres of land today. She has had a long struggle but she goes by her belief that “It’s wrong to bear injustice.” Saraswathi too asserts, “Every person has a potential to develop. Only our dreams can carry us to that goal.”
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