Therapeutic techniques work on the assumption that the cause of distress is only within the individual. However, an individual’s mental health is also affected by various forms of systemic discrimination. So for Dalits, therapy involves narrating trauma from one therapist to another, in the hope that they will eventually find a caste-sensitive professional.
The National Sample Survey 2014 data is used to explore the character of class inequality, over and beyond that of caste. The caste break-up of various social classes suggests that caste inequalities are greater amongst the more educated classes.
A survey of domestic workers revealed across six northeastern Indian states, a large majority of maids, cooks and other domestic staff worked seven days a week and were not given a single day of annual leave without having their pay docked.
In August 2020, Global March Against Child Labour released an evidence-based report, providing an overview of the situation of child labour with a gender lens in sugarcane harvesting in India. The report highlights that children are pushed into hazardous child labour due to structural poverty among harvesters, most of whom are from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes, also referred to as DBA (Dalit, Bahujan, Adivasi/Tribal) in this article, because of exploitative hiring practices resulting in debt bondage. It was found that traditional gender-based norms contributed significantly to child labour by normalising unequal wages and unpaid family work.
“the ‘Beijing Platform for Action’… laid the roadmap for ‘gender mainstreaming’ in public policies, recognising the distinct disadvantages faced by women from marginalised communities.”
"oppression and discrimination experienced by members of the community have been multidimensional – from brutal physical, emotional, psychological and sexual abuse to everyday microaggressions, leaving a haunting imprint on the psyches of the people."
Founder President of Feminist Dalit Organisation Durga Sob today said that despite the promulgation of the new statute, women were still unable to exercise their rights.
Despite robust laws, violence against India’s most oppressed people continues to rise.