| Hello, readers. Dalit History Month is celebrated every April, the month of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar’s birth. It’s a time of remembrance but also of acknowledging those currently at the forefront of change. Read on... The Big Story How Dalit women activists are making history “I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved.” Dr BR Ambedkbar  A painting in Madhubani Style by Delhi-based artist Malvika Raj, also the cover of the book Spotted Goddesses: Dalit Women’s Agency-Narratives on Caste and Gender Violence. (Image source: Glasgow Women's Library) From the time of Savitribai Phule, the self-taught feminist reformer and India’s first woman teacher who fought for girls’ education and campaigned for widow remarriage, Dalit women have been at the forefront of change. These include warriors from 1857 like Jhalkaribai who tricked the British by disguising herself as Rani Lakshmibai, allowing the queen time to escape from the Jhansi fort. And the sniper Udadevi Pasi who, in the battle of Sikanderpur, hid atop a tree from where she targeted British soldiers until she herself was spotted and killed. [Read more in Badri Narayan’s 2006 book, Women Heroes and Dalit Assertion in North India: Culture, Identity and Politics.] From Dakshayani Velayudhan, the only Dalit woman in the Constituent Assembly to Mayawati, the first woman Dalit chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Dalit women continue to push for social change. Not every push results in success or change. But every push reflects a new voice and, put together, a million mutinies blaze away. Banning caste: “Today Seattle, tomorrow the world” In February this year, Seattle became the first American city to ban caste discrimination. Behind the raised fists was years of activism, much of it led by Dalit women like Thenmozhi Soundararajan, co-founder Equality Labs, and a coalition of over 100 gender, racial and labour justice groups, including Api Chaya, a support group for survivors of sexual violence and the Ambedkar Association of North America. Though not a Dalit herself the vote was led by council woman Kshama Sawant. The women were undaunted in the face of death threats and violence and, finally prevailed. What happened in Seattle has not stayed in Seattle. “Today Seattle, tomorrow the world,” Soundararajan told me soon after the Seattle victory. [I wrote about why Seattle’s new law against caste bias is needed here.] Just days later in March, the Toronto district school board became the first in Canada to recognize caste discrimination in schools and has asked a local human rights body to create a framework to deal with the issue. And on March 22 in California, Aisha Wahab, a first-term Democratic party senator introduced a bill that would add caste to the list of forbidden forms of discrimination including race and gender. She has been trolled and, according to her office, has received death threats. Just saying no When H&M signed a legally binding agreement in April 2022 to end sexual violence and the harassment of women workers at one of its largest Indian suppliers, Natchi Apparel in Tamil Nadu, it was historic not just because of the size of the global apparel brand or because this was the first time any brand had signed up to tackle gender-based violence in Asia’s garment industry. It was historic because the negotiations were led by Dalit women. The women had been agitating since the murder of a 21-year-old Dalit woman worker, Jeyasre Kathirvel in January 2021 while on her way home from work. Her supervisor at work, V Thangadurai who, her family says, had been harassing her for months, later confessed to raping and then killing her. [See more here] Her death brought forward other testimonies of harassment, sexual abuse and a toxic environment at the same garment factory where women workers said that despite multiple complaints of sexual harassment filed with the help of their union, the Tamil Nadu Textile and Common Labour Union (TTCU), no action was ever taken.  (Image source: Tamil Nadu Textile and Common Labour Union twitter page) The Dalit women-led TTCU began a campaign demanding justice for Jayasre and a safe work environment for all women. It got in touch with H&M directly and an independent third-party investigation was launched. The result was a legally binding agreement signed by H&M, TTCU as well as the Asia Floor Wage Alliance and the Global Labour Justice – International Labour Rights Forum. The agreement mandates training of workers, supervisors and executives, strengthening the internal complaints process and establishing an independent grievance mechanism as well as the installation of TTCU members on the factory floor to ensure women are safe at work. The art and necessity of organising The acquittal in March this year of three of the four dominant-caste men accused in the gang-rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit girl in Hathras in 2020 did not come as a surprise. The police investigation was sloppy and even the first information report was improperly drafted. There were gaps in the trial. A plea by the victim’s family to transfer the case to Delhi was ignored and the role of the public prosecutor was questionable, writes Manjula Pradeep, national convenor, National Coalition of Women Leaders (NCWL). Set up by Pradeep in February 2021, the NCWL is now organizing with like-minded organisations to create space where Dalit, Muslim, tribal and transwomen can assert their rights. “In the past we’ve never been given space either by feminist circles or by Dalit rights movements,” she says. Now, the time has come for a “collective struggle to build capacities especially around sexual violence.” On April 3, NCWL along with Equality Now, and Dalit Human Rights Defenders Network began a campaign to implement the ban on the two-finger test which continues to be carried out despite a Supreme Court ruling prohibiting it. Some of the organizing is at the grassroots level. For instance, in Haryana, Manisha Mashaal set up the Swabhiman Society in 2012 with the goal of “uniting and organizing Dalit women in Haryana to end caste-based oppression”. The organization also provides legal support to rape survivors, Mashaal says. In November 2020, Swabhiman and Equality Now published a report on barriers to accessing justice for Dalit girls and women in Haryana. It found that 80% of sexual violence was committed by men from dominant castes. Finding a voice For over two decades, Khabar Lahariya has been reporting from Bundelkhand, a hard, hilly region between Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, chronicling a side of India that is rarely covered in mainstream media. “Mainstream media does not hire Dalit women,” says editor-in-chief Kavita Bundelkhandi. “But it takes a Dalit woman to understand the lives of other Dalit women.”  (left) Kavita Devi, Co-founder, Khabar Lahariya; Meera Devi, MD, Khabar Lahariya. (Image credits: Madhu Kapparath) What started as a two-page black and white newspaper in 2002, has now morphed into a full-fledged website with 30 women reporters that has remained true to its core philosophy: Local reporting that look at issues through what it calls a nariwadi chashma (feminist lens). Stories include the crisis in employment among women farmers, what women basket weavers in village Udaypur, district Varanasi do for entertainment (hint: they don’t have the time for leisure), and a “sneak peak” at an eco-friendly wedding in Bundelkhand. The change, says Kavita, is incremental but is, all the same, a big deal in ending caste discrimination. For instance, she tells me, there is a long-standing tradition in Lalitpur district where Dalit women would remove their chappals and hold them in their hand if they happened to pass by a dominant caste man. Some years ago, Khabar Lahariya did a story. The local administration set up an inquiry. There was some condemnation of the tradition. And today, no young Dalit woman takes off her slippers. “Change takes time, but this is a big step for us,” says Kavita. | 
