Kathryn Ramsay, Minority Rights Group’s Gender Programme Coordinator, during her to the Dalit Shakti Kendra (DSK) learns how the training the girls receive at the DSK “equips them with skills to do jobs outside their traditional ‘caste occupations’ (demeaning jobs forced on them because of their caste). “It also teaches them about equality and empowers them to challenge the discrimination they face”, she writes in a blog. Ramsay narrates how all of the 2138 women and girls who received training at the DSK were invited at for a celebration of their achievements. “Girls from the Valmiki community – the lowest sub-caste of Dalits whose traditional caste occupation is cleaning out human excrement by hand from dry toilets – were invited as an encouragement to them to join training programmes like the DSK”, she says. She found that in total around 800 Dalit women and girls turned out, along with some Muslim and indigenous women who have also received training at the DSK. A testament to the value these women place on the DSK is that so many travelled from all over Gujarat (some for over 7 hours) and at their own expense, to attend the event.

Link: https://minorityrights.wordpress.com/tag/dalits/