The Hague, 21 November 2006 WE, the participants of the Hague Conference on Dalit Women’s Rights, held in The Hague on 20 and 21 November 2006, after deliberating upon the issues of discrimination, violence and impunity against Dalit women, adopt this Declaration on the Human Rights and Dignity of Dalit Women. In South Asia – …
The Status of Dalit Women in India’s Caste Based System
by Sonia Mahey, University of Alberta In this paper I wish to present the devastating effects of the caste system on the educational, social, and economical status of Dalit women in modern India. My aim is to highlight the harsh reality of the suppression, struggle and torture Dalit women face every day of their miserable …
Bhil Women Fight the Liquor Demons
by Rahul Banerjee There is a general perception that Adivasi women enjoy greater equality because tribal society is less patriarchal. The reality, however, is very different. Take the situation of Bhil tribal, Ramanbai, of Chandupura village in Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone district. She says, “I am suffering from piles and the doctor at Sanawad has told me …
A Study on Dalit Women Movement in Tamilnadu
by Dr. R. Sivakumar Even as we are in the 21st century, caste discrimination, an age- old practice that dehumanizes and perpetuates a cruel form of discrimination continues to be practiced. India where the practice is rampant despite the existence of a legislation to stop this, 160 million Dalits of which 49.96 percentage are women …
Weaving past caste biases
by Ben Antao THE WEAVE of My Life by Urmila Pawar is more than a Dalit woman’s memoirs; it’s a bold yet intelligent critique of casteism coupled with feminist politics in Maharashtra towards the last quarter of the 20th century. And to think that a woman from the Mahar caste could rise above her poor …
Dalit literature Quietly affirmative
by Gowri Ramnarayan The Grip of Change is a work of literature, not a manifesto. THE first thing that strikes you about The Grip of Change? Author P.Sivakami’s translation makes you forget it was written originally in Tamil. More remarkably, in dealing with life in a Dalit community, it deals with life itself. It is a work …
India district bans cell phones for unmarried women
NEW DELHI — A local council in northern India has banned unmarried women from carrying mobile telephones to halt a series of illicit romances between partners from different castes, media reports said Wednesday.The Baliyan council in Uttar Pradesh state decided to act after at least 23 young couples ran away and got married …
Women’s commission appeals to Maoists for peace
Kolkata :West Bengal Women’s Commission on Women Victims of Maoist Violence (WBCW) on Wednesday expressed deep concerns over the growing attacks perpetrated by Maoists in West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia districts on women and appealed to them to abjure violence.
All hail goddess English?
Dennis Baron Global English may be about to go celestial. A political activist in India wants the country’s poorest caste to improve its status by worshipping the English language, and to start off he’s building a temple to Goddess English in the obscure village of Bankagaon, near Lakhimpur Khiri in Uttar Pradesh. English started …