Despite the Constitution guaranteeing and legally assuring its citizens with equality, Caste-based discrimination continues to be a societal reality and educational institutions are not immune to it. Right from Rohit Vemula to the recent suicide of Darshan Solanki, several incidents of students committing suicide have been linked to caste discrimination and abuse over the years. …
The link between caste and mental health is powerful and tortuous. People of lower caste communities, such as Dalits and Adivasis, constantly wrestle with the dilemma of whether to own their identity and be outspoken about it. It isn’t primarily because they are ashamed of it; rather, they are scared they won’t be able to …
“Dalit Student Hit With Metal Rod For Touching Teacher’s Bike In UP: Police” (Press Trust of India, 2022) These aren’t headlines from the 1900s but from very recent times. Caste atrocities aren’t new to our ears, and it has more significant impacts than we think. The increasing gap between the intent and our action becomes …
“Are you really an SC? I never knew!” “You don’t sound Dalit.” “You don’t look Dalit.” “You are not like those other reservation people.” “We never thought you were a Dalit man.” These are some of the phrases that I and many other Dalits have heard throughout their life, often but not always from savarnas. …
“Caste is everywhere,” recalls Grace Banu, a Dalit-transgender activist, while conversing with Faye D’Souza about the time she ran away from home and joined a transgender community. She talks about how a Dalit-trans person is oppressed in a twofold layer- One for being transgender and the other for being a Dalit. Dalit queerness is an …
It’s about time we address the elephant in the room we call India—caste and comfort have never gone hand in hand. While matters have progressed since the country gained independence, with the Constitution laying the ground for equality and social activism propelling its ethos forward, we still have to ask each other the question: Have …
