Dalit, also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming a fifth varna, also known by the name of Panchama. Dalits now profess various religious beliefs, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Christianity, Islam. Scheduled Castes is the official term for Dalits as per the Constitution of India.
Brinda Karat is an Indian politician, elected to the Rajya Sabha as a Communist Party of India (Marxist) member on 11 April 2005 for West Bengal.
Subhasini Ali is an Indian politician and a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). She is the President of the All India Democratic Women's Association and former Member of Parliament from Kanpur.
National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR), founded in 1998, now comprises four operational strands, each of which is working to eradicate caste-based discrimination against Dalits in India. It is based in Delhi and has chapters elsewhere in the country. It has stated its aims to be achieving greater visibility for Dalit issues and holding the state, in the form of its criminal justice system, accountable for its alleged failures.
Ruth Manorama is a Dalit social activist from Bangalore, India who fights for Dalit women's rights, the rights of domestic workers and those in the unorganized labour sector, as well as urban slum dwellers. In 2006, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award.
Feminism in India is a set of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and opportunities for women in India. It is the pursuit of women's rights within the society of India. Like their feminist counterparts all over the world, feminists in India seek gender equality: the right to work for equal wages, the right to equal access to health and education, and equal political rights. Indian feminists also have fought against culture-specific issues within India's patriarchal society, such as inheritance laws.
International Women's Year (IWY) was the name given to 1975 by the United Nations. Since that year March 8 has been celebrated as International Women's Day, and the United Nations Decade for Women, from 1976 to 1985, was also established.
Persecution and discrimination against Dalits has been observed in the countries such as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, the UK, and the US.
The People's Vigilance Committee on Human Rights is an Indian non-governmental organisation and membership-based movement which work to ensure basic rights for marginalised groups in Indian society, e.g. children, women, Dalits and tribes to establish rule of law through participatory activism against extrajudicial killing, police torture, hunger, bonded labour and injustice by hegemonic masculinity of the caste system and patriarchy. PVCHR ideology is inspired by the father of the Dalit movement and modern nation state, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, and father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi, who struggled against patriarchy & the hierarchical caste system. PVCHR and its founders nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to combat masculinity driven militarist traditions, for their contribution to bettering conditions for peace in world and for acting as driving force in efforts to prevent the use of masculinity driven militarist traditions as a weapon of war and conflict.
Neelam Chaturvedi is an Indian women's human rights defender and activist.
Joseph D'souza is an Indian bishop, missionary, and Christian and Dalit rights activist. As of 2018, he was International President of the Dignity Freedom Network (DFN), President of the All India Christian Council (AICC), and CEO of Operation Mobilisation - India with is not affiliated with Operation Mobilisation, International. On 30 August 2014, he was consecrated as Archbishop of the Good Shepherd Church of India, and associated ministries.
Mythili Sivaraman was an Indian women's rights and trade union activist. She was a co-founder of All India Democratic Women's Association and leader in the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Through her writings and activism she brought attention to the Keezhvenmani massacre of 1968 and the Vachati mass rape cases of 1992. She led efforts to drive women's empowerment, particularly of women from the disadvantaged communities, and trade union and labour activism. She was a contributor to Economic and Political Weekly, and wrote for publications including Mainstream and the Radical Review.
The term 'political participation' has a very wide meaning. It is not only related to 'Right to Vote', but simultaneously relates to participation in: decision-making process, political activism, political consciousness, etc. Women in India participate in voting, run for public offices and political parties at lower levels more than men. Political activism and voting are the strongest areas of women's political participation. To combat gender inequality in politics, the Indian Government has instituted reservations for seats in local governments.
All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch (AIDMAM) is a platform for women from the Dalit community to raise their voices for justice. This platform has raised several struggles and movements for self-respect and dignity. AIDMAM is a movement which was initiated by the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR). The aim of the movement is to recognize how the class, caste, and gender identity of a dalit woman overlap and place them at the very bottom of the social hierarchy. They work to empower dalit women to challenge these caste, class, and gender hierarchies and move forward in their struggle for justice. They do so through networking, enhancing skills and leadership at the state and district level.
Thenmozhi Soundararajan is a Dalit rights activist based in the United States of America. She is also a transmedia storyteller, songwriter, hip hop musician and technologist. She has been actively campaigning for the rights of the marginalized in midst of structural casteism.
Asha Kowtal is an activist and expert in the field of Dalit women’s rights. She is currently the General Secretary of the Dalit Women’s Rights movement in India, called the All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch (AIDMAM), which is part of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights. She is also a convenor and part of the steering committee of WinG-India, a network advancing leadership of women from the north-eastern part of India, and involving Dalit and tribal communities in governance at all levels with the aim of challenging exploitative structures and enabling a society with gender equality.
Feminism in South Africa concerns the organised efforts to improve the rights of the girls and women of South Africa. These efforts are largely linked to issues of feminism and gender equality on one hand, and racial equality and the political freedoms of African and other non-White South African ethnic groups on the other. Early feminist efforts concerned the suffrage of White women, allowing them to vote in elections beginning from 1930s, and significant activism in the 1950s to demand equal pay of men and women. The 1980s were a major turning point in the advancement of South African women, and in 1994, following the end of the apartheid regime, the status of women was bolstered by changes to the country's constitution. Since the end of apartheid, South African feminism is a contribution associated with the liberation and democratization of the country, however, the movement still struggles with the embedded conservative and patriarchal views within some segments of South African society.
Dalit feminism is a feminist perspective that includes questioning caste and gender roles among the Dalit population and within feminism and the larger women's movement. Dalit women primarily live in South Asia, mainly in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. Dalit women face different challenges than women in oppressor castes in these countries. They are more likely to be poor, uneducated and socially marginalized. Dalit feminists advocate and have advocated for equal rights for Dalit women based on gender, caste and other issues. They have addressed conferences, created organizations and helped elect other Dalit women into political office.
Vanitha Mathil was a human chain formed on 1 January 2019 across the Indian state of Kerala to uphold gender equality and protest against gender discrimination. The wall was formed solely by women and extended for a distance of around 620 kilometres from Kasargod to Thiruvananthapuram. Around three to five million women participated in the event.
Ambedkar International Center is a civil rights advocacy group formed in 2012 to fight against caste discrimination in the United States. AIC's mission is to strengthen the unity among scheduled castes (SCs), scheduled tribes (STs) and other backward classes (OBCs) living in the United States of America. The organisation is named after the leading Indian social activist and caste reformer, Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar.
