About the Book
Human
civilizations have come a long way in struggling for emancipation from all
forms of exploitation, abuse, oppression, exclusion and marginalization of the
fellow-beings. There are situations in the social environment that precipitate
inequality and injustice, adding to vulnerabilities and impoverishments,
hardships and miseries to certain sections of society, which, even after much
of efforts, are not resolved amicably — such circumstances call for social
action.
The
present work is a humble attempt to document the process of intervention that
led to empowerment of the Dalits in Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh, India.
Under the aegis of People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) – a
civil society initiative, a few committed and motivated workers mobilized the
downtrodden and oppressed Dalits and gradually ‘empowered’ them to take charge
of their lives. It is the process towards developing model villages while
addressing the social inequalities that had shackled the lives of most
underprivileged and marginalized people in the community.
Empowering
people who have been socialized and conditioned for ages to be resource-less,
powerless and voiceless victims to the dominant upper caste, who have accepted
that poverty, chronic malnutrition, abuse, exploitation and injustice as their
fate, who struggle, almost unendingly, throughout their life to somehow gather
two square meals to keep their body and soul together, is indeed a arduous
task. It required more than a decade’s unflinching hard work, consistency and
commitment to see some positive change in the lives of Dalits in the area of
intervention. The present work has tried to sketch that process of social
action, which challenged the elitism, thereby changing the social order to be more
egalitarian. This work records the changing identity among Dalits through the
process of empowerment in Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh, India.
About
the authors:
One of the author, Dr. Archana Kaushik, is a social work educator, teaching at
Department of Social Work, University of Delhi. And, the other – Ms. Shruti
Nagvanshi has been a field practitioner, the managing Trustee and Co-founder of
PVCHR. Shruti Nagvanshi, has been a part of the team that led the intervention
that is being talked about in the book. She has witnessed the entire journey of
empowerment that has come among many lower caste people collectively termed as
Dalits. The experiential reality shared by Shruti is amalgamated with
conceptual and theoretical perspectives and presented in this book by Archana, using
her knowledge as social work educator.
USP
of the book:
The literature, in general, and social work literature, in particular, is full
of manuals and books on community organization and empowerment, Dalit
empowerment and related topics. However, there has always been dearth of
materials emerging out of field practice that facilitate testing, verifying,
accepting or rejecting theories in the light of
experiences from the field. In this manner, this is a unique and
enriching joint venture of an academician and practitioner in social work
discipline. Human service professions, such as social work, can grow only if
academics and field practice are strongly interconnected, complement,
contribute and give insight and foresight to each other to rectify, improve and
make itself suitable to meet the demands of fast changing socio-cultural
milieu. While, the divorce or disconnect between the two would engulf both
theory and practice, making them redundant and eventually extinct. It is in
this backdrop, that the present work bears its significance. It depicts the
interventions and strategies that have worked well in the field and hence have
critical importance for academia. The book highlights the process of community
empowerment.
The
purpose of documenting the process of Dalit empowerment in the book is to
facilitate social workers and other human service professionals to gain an
insight into the challenges and problems change agents encounter in social
action and approaches, strategies and models of intervention that ‘work’ in
empowerment of deprived and marginalized groups and communities. For social
planners and policy makers, the present work would provide enough food for
thought and analysis that may result in planning of pro-poor and responsive policies
and programmes. The social work educators, practitioners and students would
appreciate the theoretical perspectives on different aspects of empowerment of
downtrodden people gained through fieldwork practice. Hopefully, it would
enrich their teaching, learning and practice.
Contents
of the book:
A brief outline of the book is delineated here. It is important to note here
that the names mentioned in the book, in various case studies, excerpts of
interviews and interactions with Dalit and marginalized people, have been
camouflaged to protect their identities.
What
it means to be born as Dalit in rural India? How taking birth in a particular
family has almost complete bearing on access to resources and power? How rural
people respond to authority – whether administrative, legal or charismatic? How
caste system perpetuates domination and subjugation in myriad of ways? What is
the psyche of the Dalit and how caste-based interiority is internalized? What
is the relationship dynamics between Dalits – the oppressed and marginalized
and upper caste – the oppressors? And how this relationship is defining and
confining access to resources, decision-making power and opportunities to
development and empowerment? The chapter one titled, ‘the context’ tries to
answer these questions and pictures the backdrop of rural socio-cultural milieu
where intervention efforts for empowerment of Dalits have been made.
The
chapter two ‘praxis to practice’ lays out the theoretical framework that has
guided our action. It conceptualizes the term empowerment, its salient features
and components. It provides sociological and psychological perspectives to the
process of empowerment from powerlessness and vulnerability. It presents the modalities
and models we followed in making the marginalized groups and communities aware,
conscientized and ready to act for their rightful dues.
Chapter
three – In Belwa village, Dalits could never participate in the political
process of electing their leaders, which is one of the basic rights of every
major Indian. For years together, the upper caste leaders forged their votes
and continued their unquestioned authority and control in grassroots
governance. A few years back nobody could ever
imagine that the Dalits of Belvan, who have been oppressed and suppressed,
marginalized and excluded, could even voice their concerns. The
social action carried out in the village ensured mobilization of Dalit
community and their first victory as they marked their impressions on the
ballot papers. It is the process of Dalit-empowerment from being led passively
to becoming change makers. They not only acquired their right to vote but also
nominated their own candidate in elections, who became the new village
head.
Chapter
four ‘from starvation deaths to healthy living’ describes another process of
social action in Badagaon in Pindra block where there were many reported and
unreported cases of starvation deaths of Dalit children and the government
machinery was totally indifferent and apathetic. It highlights how consistent
and long struggle changed the system and now Badagaon is a model village in
terms of ensuring Right to Health to Dalits. Similar interventions were carried
out in many other villages and many lives could be saved with timely
intervention.
Chapter
five sketches the role of young children bearing the torch of struggle for
change with unflinching motivation and spirits, themselves becoming the role
models for adults. Children’s parliament was constituted.
Chapter
six – Weaving Destiny through yarns of hardship – captures the plight and
struggle of weavers who weave banarasi sarees, but are left with poverty, pain
and grief. Their hands weave enchantingly gorgeous sarees but their life is
filled with ugliness of impoverishment and poverty.
Chapter
seven ‘from bondage to liberation’ is a case study of three brothers in Belwan
village who were bonded labourers as children and depicts the process of their
struggle, action and freedom. This event triggered enthusiasm among the bonded
labourers, their families and social workers working for their rehabilitation
and had ripple effect.
Chapter
eight – Surviving torture to defending human rights – highlights the cases of
police torture on innocent Dalits and their fight against their victimization. There
have been numerous instances when police, without any proof, put Dalit
inhabitants behind bars on the smallest pretext. The role of testimonial
therapy and the process of uniting village fellow-men to collectively fight
against perpetrators of torture have been highlighted in this chapter.
The
last chapter ‘Seeing Change’ summarizes the entire process of intervention and
depicts the way forward. It opens up the issue of ‘neo-dalit movement’ that
attacks caste system in a dynamic way.
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