Statement by Participants in the Two-Day Consultation on

“Dalit Women’s Movements: Leadership and Beyond”,

(On 17th and 18th February 2006, United Theological College, Bangalore)

 

Preamble[1]

At a time when nascent movements of the marginalised are under siege in India from the forces of dominant ideologies including Brahminism, majoritarianism, and globalisation, we feel the need to affirm that the voices of the marginalised and their aspirations should be reflected in the rich tapestry that comprises the Indian nation. The voices of the women and children of the populations which are pushed to the margins are rarely heard – specifically, the Dalit women.  This consultation dedicated itself to bringing to the mainstream discourse their voices, aspirations, and visions. As no one movement can effectively reflect the specific issues and situations of Dalit women whose situations vary widely across regions, states, languages and religions, we welcome the trend of a growing number of movements of Dalit women to take up issues and work on their concerns.

 

Therefore, we have decided to come together as a Collective, termed the Dalit Women’s Network for Solidarity (DAWNS).  It will work to strengthen the voices of Dalit women through building knowledge, working towards ideological clarity, and highlighting the values, visions and aspirations of Dalit Women.  It will strive to put their agendas in the mainstream, thereby giving a new shape and direction to socio-political and cultural discourse. It is a conscious effort to break the existing stereotype of Dalit women as mainly activists (doers) who have little to contribute (as thinkers) to ideological discourses in society, politics, governance, ethics, economics, and development. To this end, it will network and dialogue with societal change agents including academic institutions, trainers, NGOs, Government institutions, and development groups.  It will provide a platform for solidarity on these issues to grassroots activists, students and other civil society actors with a vision of a gender-just, non-casteist and equitable society.

 

ON BEHALF OF THE DALIT WOMEN OF INDIA, WE AFFIRM THAT

 

- the Dalit Community, while being an integral part of India, faces formidable systemic challenges to the full enjoyment of its rights and legal and Constitutional entitlements in this country.

 

 -  women and children of the Dalit community are more vulnerable to deprivation, discrimination and severe violence including religiously sanctioned sexual exploitation and trafficking as a result of the existing dominant social and religious system.

 

 - we are in solidarity with the legitimate and constitutionally guaranteed rights and entitlements of the marginalised sections of society including Dalit, Adivasis, tribals, and oppressed minorities.

 

 - every human being has the inviolable right of freedom of conscience and religion, especially? those who have been marginalised by the dominant social forces in this country.  We deplore attempts to restrict the free and unfettered enjoyment of the same by oppressive actions of people by the dominant groups. We insist upon the responsibility of the State to protecting these inviolable rights, especially? those of oppressed minorities.

 

 - every individual and community has the right to follow their traditional food habits without threat and intimidation.  We deplore any attempts to legislate against them or place restrictions on these practices by dominant forces.

 

 -  Dalits, both men and women, being full members of the community and citizens of this country, have a fair share in all the common property resources of the village (tanks, wells, grazing grounds, products of trees on common properties, etc) and have a right to participate on an equal basis in decisions on, and in enjoyment of the same.

 

- Though we stand in solidarity with the struggles of Dalit men against the dominant        Brahminical system, Dalit men have also aligned themselves with the dominant paradigm of patriarchy in oppressing us. We therefore call upon Dalit men to reject this paradigm of dominance and stand shoulder to shoulder with us in our effort to achieve social transformation, first of all for the Dalit communities and also to all sections of Indian society.

 

-  We recognise with regret that the Brahminical values of graded inequality are also manifest in part of the Dalit community, causing some Dalit communities, variously called Arundathiars, Chakkliars or Madigas, and other similar names in several regions, are also treated as untouchables within the community.  We deplore this tendency and call upon all concerned, both within the Dalit community and outside, to reject both the theory and practice of untouchability.  We stand in solidarity with the most oppressed among the Dalits and declare common cause with them in their own desire to articulate and realise their visions for themselves.

 

WE DECLARE THAT

 

- The existing models of development being applied in our lives through Government and NGO programmes and mass mobilisations have served to burden? us further with the responsibility and the need to struggle for our own emancipation as well as to work for larger social transformation.  This has drained? us of our positive energies and served to prevent us from developing ourselves, our children and communities.  

 

 - We have been denied the right to articulate our own visions of emancipation.  Our energies have been co-opted to working out the visions of dominant others who have shown scant respect for our world-view or philosophy of life, by not enabling us to articulate them or work towards achieving them.

 

- We value the solidarity and support of the larger movements in society including the women’s movements, and express our qualified agreement with Feminist thought and activism.  Feminism’s construct of a patriarchal, dominant ‘male’ and a subjugated female ‘other’ to the male is necessary, but not a sufficient reflection of our realities. We experience not just gender and class oppression, but also colour and caste oppression. While our men do oppress us, even they experience domination, which has its own impact on our experience of “otherness”.  Many of us have opted out of the traditional dominant religious framework and profess various faiths which are in a minority in India, bringing in an additional dimension to our “otherness”. Our analysis or experience of society does not figure in the very strongly in the existing Feminisms, even though there may be some common features with say Third World Feminism or Black feminism or Womanism, which are attempts to include women’s experiences other than those of the originators of Feminist Theory.

 

Therefore, in all honesty we feel the need to develop our own theory and praxis that will work for us as the ‘most’ subaltern? in a highly stratified society, as well as contribute to the analysis of our society and ways to transform it. We therefore feel that we need a new language to define this state of being.  We therefore coin the term Dalit Womanism to better define and understand our lives, because it affirms us in a more wholistic  holistic way rather than the term “Feminism” which comes with a lot of baggage.

 

- Further, and even more significantly, we see a clear need to evolve a new and creative form of mobilisation, which will be truly representative of our aspirations, needs and visions for ourselves and our community and society at large.  This mobilisation will focus on Rebuilding, Restoration and Reconciliation of all communities, and especially of those which have survived oppression for centuries. 

 

 - It will be shaped by the Core Values of Equality, Complementarity and Non-Hierarchy.  We eschew the principle of Vengeance and affirm that we need to work together for new forms of Equality. We also reject existing models of leadership in which power is sucked away from the people and invested in icons. 

 

To This end, WE RECOMMEND THAT

 

- Work with our community should focus on the issues of Education, Employment and Livelihood, so that our energies are preserved for the overall development of our community, especially our women and children. By Education we do not only mean the formal system of education which is dominant in character, but also social education to empower us and our children with awareness of our culture, strengths, our history as we see it and our legal rights and entitlements. 

 

We insist upon the responsibility of the state to provide access to quality education for Dalits and other traditionally deprived sections of society.

 

Just as the collection of statistics has been made gender-sensitive, we insist upon the need to collect and analyse data in a caste-sensitive manner.  The lack of adequate data segregated on the basis of both caste and gender has made it difficult to get a clear picture of the ground realities of the community.  For instance, the National Sample survey data needs to be collected in this manner. In the absence of this vital input, allocations for Dalit women cannot be made or measured specifically, leading to misuse of government developmental schemes and skewed data.

 

Provision of our basic needs such as water, housing sanitation and health should be a priority not only in programme or fund allocation terms. In addition, the impact of these allocations should also be monitored not only in terms of expenditure but also by measuring the improvement of quality of life of the intended beneficiaries.

 

Suitable accountability mechanisms and structures as well as redressal mechanisms need to be set up for this purpose, as the existing ones are clearly not sufficiently effective or responsive.

 

Further, the existing pattern of segregated housing for Dalits should be done away with – Dalits should to be integrated into the mainstream of social life in villages, towns, and cities. The government should show the way with integrated housing programmes at all levels.

 

Where Dalit communities are forced to undertake traditional caste-related occupations such as manual scavenging, these should be eliminated and provision for alternative forms of employment must be made, and the workers must be compensated while the alternatives are being put in place.  The government should strictly implement the law banning manual scavenging and all welfare measures for their upward social and economic mobility should be carried out with alacrity, especially as a majority of those involved are women and girls.

 

Development funding policies for Dalits, whether they are from multilateral, bilateral, government sources or from financial institutions, church or secular funding groups, need their priorities to be realigned to meeting the real, felt and articulated needs of Dalit women and children, so as to have best and most lasting social impact, and on the day-to-day realities of deprivation of basic needs and entitlements and to focus on increasing access to these needs – Therefore, we strongly feel that side by side, there has to be an equal focus on the cultural and social rights of the community.  This will prevent a large number of the incidents of human rights violations, and also serve to build up the strength of the community, making it more strong and self-reliant. 

 

However, the focus of attention in the area of international aid for Dalits has till date been on the human rights violations and documentation and follow-up with the legal machinery of the State - in other words, on violations of legal and political rights of Dalits.  This is not surprising given that the Dalit issue has only recently attracted wide-spread international attention, and the level of awareness on the issue in the international community is still not very high.

 

While not denying the necessity of working on human rights, both as a means of affirming the rights of the oppressed Dalits and as a means of deterrence of further violations,  we submit that  sometimes it is like closing the stable doors after the horses have fled. Undue focus on individual violations can drain positive energies and divert attention from development of the community as a whole. Further, it serves to reinforce the stereotype of the community as victims rather than as active agents in their own progress. Often the sheer helplessness of victims and the brute force of the perpetrators and vested/casteist interests may cause an adverse result. In such cases – and there are many, given the ground realities in this country -  it may serve to further demoralise the weak and reduce their faith in the capacity of the system to protect their interests, thereby strengthening the hands of the oppressors.

 

Finally, we declare that as a group, we commit ourselves to becoming visible and active agents and actors for positive social transformation.

 

Signed:

 

Cynthia Stephen, Dr. Evangeline Anderson-Rajkumar Dr. Rini Ralte, Sherin, R. Prabhakar, Samuel Jesupatham, Yashoda,  Sheela M R, Semmalar, Puttamma, Jayamala, Nanjundaswamy, Kalpana, Lavanya, Dhavaseeli, Students of MTh in Women’s Studies, UTC, and several others. 

 

 


[1] Explanatory Note:

This statement reflects the content of the deliberations of the consultation. Participants, numbering about 25 in all - included Dalit women and men, including  social activists both from grassroots and senior levels, academicians, students and educators including from theological backgrounds, writers and trainers. Students and academics from tribal backgrounds also participated. In many cases, participants’ identities overlapped these seemingly discrete categories.