Express News Service
CHENNAI: If there’s one thing that unites every woman in India, it is pain. At least, that’s how writer and activist Shalin Maria Lawrence puts it. Called upon by every other media organisation, college administration or leftist and feminist movements to talk about gender or caste-based violence, Shalin cannot help but ponder on the toll it takes on the women in attendance, including herself.
For which woman has not been subjected to violence once or twice or every day? While there are many kinds of violence (active and passive) that play out here, how does it manifest in the life of a Dalit woman who finds herself at the bottom of every social hierarchy? What are her problems that upper caste feminism still fails to acknowledge? Where do we find reprieve? It’s these questions that she attempts to answer in the third edition of Prajnya’s Equality Colloquium Series Sexual and Gender-based Violence and Caste: An Overview.
The missing ideal of intersectionality
At this point in the history of feminism, one might think that there’s enough understanding about this intersectionality that writes its own course.
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Express News Service
CHENNAI: Sure, there are several indicators of women’s development. If you were to visit the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, you’ll find many women working on international research projects. You see this and think there’s been some growth. Yet, some 50 kilometres away, you’ll find that the practice of witch-hunting is still prevalent. A widow would be branded as the witch so that the villagers could take away her property. Go farther, a Dalit woman would be raped for the very reason that she is Dalit and paraded around naked.”