Educating Dalit girls: Caste and patriarchy among/against scavenging communities in India
By Namrata Namrata | April 10, 2024
They do not give me money. Sometimes they give two rotis (chapatis), sometimes just one. One house did not give me anything for two or three days. So I stopped going there. If they give me nothing, why should I go? I didn’t go for two or three days, then they came to threaten—'If you do not come, we will not let you on our land. Where will you get food for your animals?' Together, we own four buffaloes. I went back to clean.”
A woman domestic worker from Uttar Pradesh, India
In this blog I aim to discuss how the generational stigma of caste, class, occupation and gender hinders the educational experiences of Dalit girls coming from households associated with manual scavenging in India.
Manual scavenging involves manually removing excreta, garbage, cleaning toilets, sewage, etc. Research shows that there are nearly 1.2 million manual scavengers in India and approximately 95 percent of them are women. Furthermore, manual scavenging has historically been a caste-based occupation, majorly performed by certain Dalit communities like Valmiki, Chamar, Adi Dharma, Churra in India. The fatal nature of these tasks can be easily demonstrated by the fact that between 1993 and 2018, nearly 920 manual scavengers lost their lives while working in India. Furthermore, despite being banned by the Manual Scavenging and Prohibition of Employment Act 2013 reports show how manual scavenging still continues to persist as a caste-based occupation in India. A recent report illustrates that those involved in manual scavenging are often unfairly remunerated (as low as 20 cents a day), have inhumane working conditions, and are stigmatized due to association with filth and dirt. Another study highlights how in addition to the caste-based humiliation and stigma, manual scavengers face several irreversible health damages such as skin problems, joint pain and eye problems due to exposure to dirt and toxic sewage gas.
Women remain disproportionately impacted by the generational baggage of caste, class and manual scavenging as a traditional occupation. For instance, a study exploring the lives of women working as manual scavengers highlights that women’s involvement in manual scavenging is coerced by patriarchy, marriage and intergenerational transfer of manual scavenging. Excerpts from an interview of a woman working as domestic workers, as narrated in the beginning of the essay, suggests how women are coerced to continue doing this inhuman work despite their will. Considering the dire situation of women belonging to households associated with manual scavenging, most often education is considered as the vehicle to promote social justice and provide equal opportunities to all. But, will Dalit girls belonging to households associated with manual scavenging be able to escape the generational stigma of their caste, community, class, occupation and gender?
'They say we are Bhangi': Dalit girls’ education and the continuing cycle of stigma
Education has become a ray of hope for many of these Dalit girls belonging to households associated with manual scavenging. Over the years, reports show that the gross enrollment ratio of Scheduled castes girls have exceeded the Scheduled castes boys at all levels of educational attainment. As a result, the increasing educational enrollment is often construed as increasing gender parity and social justice across different castes. For instance, recently in the Indian parliament, the current finance minister of India emphasized on the growing educational enrollment numbers among girls as an example for women empowerment in India.
However, research shows that despite the rise in the educational enrollment of dalit girls, education remains ineffective in eliminating social stigma and discrimination against them. In this light, a recent empirical study surveyed a total of 1,186 households from two urban towns (Panipat and Haryana) in Haryana, India; to explore the educational experiences of Dalit girls belonging to households associated with manual scavenging. For the purpose of the study, “the households, irrespective of caste or creed, were considered related to ‘Unclean’ occupations, where the members are either presently engaged or were engaged in the past in occupations that involve physical contact with blood, excrement, and other bodily defilements and are principally considered impure and polluting in society”.
The study concludes that despite increasing enrollment among girls belonging to households associated with ‘Unclean’ occupations’, these girls still face extreme stigma and discrimination (from peers, teachers, parents, school management etc.) within the Indian education system. For instance, a Dalit girl in the study shares:
They say we are Bhangi, Chamar and Chura and we are at an advantage since we get scholarships. I could hide my identity as I wore fashionable clothes. I dress up smartly and nobody can say that I come from Basti or that my parents are sweepers.
The above example, highlights how schools not only discriminate and stigmatize Dalit girls but have further reshaped modern dynamics of discrimination by stigmatizing Dalit identities for taking advantage of government scholarships.
The inseparable intersectionality of Dalit and Brahmanical patriarchy
From gender discrimination by the parents to several gendered silencing techniques, the same study reveals that girls’ education among those associated with ‘Unclean’ occupations remains subjugated to the intersectionality of deep external Brahmanical as well as internal Dalit patriarchal structures. While, on one hand, the educational experiences of girls from households associated with ‘Unclean’ occupations remain vulnerable to different kinds of exploitations due to the profound Brahmanical values of caste and gender supremacy, on the other hand, caste and patriarchal frameworks continue to work internally against Dalit girls even within their own communities. The study shows how Dalit girls from households associated with ‘Unclean’ occupations’ have to often face violence by upper-castes boys which hinder their educational experiences and raise several security concerns. Similarly, within the community itself, the way girls dress up remains a major concern for men in their family to control their sexuality and education. For example, a girl pursuing higher education shared,
Her brother, who is a school dropout, doesn’t want her to go to college that is an hour away from her house. He objects to her wearing western clothes and keeps pestering her parents to get her married
Conclusion
The educational experiences of Dalit girls’ belonging to households associated with manual scavenging highlights the vicious cycle of stigma, discrimination and violence across various intersections of caste, class, gender and occupation. The continuous workings of internal Dalit patriarchy as well as Brahminical patriarchy not only hinders social change but also restricts Dalit women’s social as well as physical mobility. This blog provokes our attention to several humiliating experiences that Dalit girls from households associated with manual scavenging have gone through within the education system. Hence, future research should focus on how increasing educational enrollment among Dalit girls has reshaped modern dynamics of stigma, discrimination and control. Also, recurring dynamics of brahmanical and Dalit patriarchy synergize to control Dalit girls’ education and sexuality. At a policy front, policy makers should ensure the ban on manual scavenging is properly followed and female domestic workers are fairly remunerated. Furthermore, at the school level, teachers and other stakeholders should ensure ways to tackle intersectional patriarchal frameworks working against Dalit girls, more specifically those belonging to households associated with manual scavenging.
References
Shokeen, N. (2023). Beyond Enrollment and Appropriation Politics in Dalit Girls’ Education: Caste and Patriarchy Among Scavenging Communities of Urban Haryana, India. Contemporary Voice of Dalit, 15 (1_suppl), S100-S112. https://doi.org/10.1177/2455328X221118491
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/530-districts-reported-as-free-of-manual-scavenging-centre/article67124313.ece
