WUNRN
BANGLADESH - DALIT WOMEN - END
DISCRIMINATION & OPPRESSION
Mary Griffin - 23 November 2009
Bangladesh - 'If you are
not considered to be human, human rights do not apply to you," says Moni
Rani, walking under lines of brightly-coloured laundry decorating dilapidated
buildings like bunting.
The kaleidoscopic colours of this
cramped south
Based on a notion of purity and
pollution, the caste system has led Dalits to be considered unclean and
historically, in some communities, they were forced to wear a bell alerting
others of their approach. Today, they still face resistance - and often
outright refusal - when attempting to enter temples, restaurants and schools,
for fear they will contaminate the higher castes.
Reminiscent of apartheid-era
Gabtoli colony sits at the end of
a long potholed road; a grey slum stuck on the western edge of the city. Living
in a no-man's land of rusty corrugated iron and old bamboo, with no facilities
and no privacy, the women of Gabtoli bathe fully clothed at the banks of the
Turag - just 200 metres from a large pipe spewing sewage.
In a country where 80% of the
population lives on less than $2 a day, Dalits shoulder the further burden of
exclusion and entrenched discrimination. Munni Rani Das raises her hand to
shoulder-level when describing the floods in rainy season. "When the rains
come it brings snakes and dangerous insects to our home," she says.
"We try to get away but the rickshaw pullers and bus drivers won't carry
us."
Discrimination
Munni, her husband and three
teenagers were moved to this flood-prone colony after developers planning to
build apartments evicted them from their central
Proffering a cup of murky
chemical-scented water, Munni adds: "There, we had safe water and a
market. We were near jobs and my children went to school. Now, school is too
far away."
The International Dalit
Solidarity Network estimates that 96% of Dalits in
Sitting behind his desk, the
commissioner for
But, born and brought up in the
Telagu colony in the commissioner's ward, Prokashamma Bhodanki insists caste
discrimination is rife. The 23-year-old daughter of the late BG Murthy, who
seven years ago founded the Bangladesh Dalit Human Rights movement, Prokashamma
hid her Dalit identity at secondary school by speaking Bangla, each term taking
her Bangla-speaking sister instead of her Telagu-speaking mother to collect her
exam results - an event similar to parents' evening at British schools. She
recalls: "One time my sister wasn't able to come. When the other students
heard my mother speak they said terrible things."
Wiping her tears with her pink
shawl, she adds: "For four years I hid my identity from my friends but
when they knew I was a Dalit girl they wouldn't eat with me or speak with me. I
swore I would never go back to school."
But she did. After finishing her
two remaining years, Prokashamma passed her exams and is now teaching English
and Bangla to young Dalits. She said: "Now I understand that so many of us
are facing that kind of discrimination. I want to fight for my rights and do
something for my community and myself."
Prokashamma belongs to a new wave
of young Dalit women in
Launched two years ago, the forum
provides training in making and selling candles and garments for its 150
members as a first step to financial independence.
Back at her brightly coloured home,
forum leader Moni Rani says her father ensured she was the first girl in her
community to finish school - and she intends to be the first of many.
"All Dalit women are now
conscious of their situation and demanding change," says Moni. "When
I was a girl I couldn't get the chances our girls are getting now. Our young
women are smarter than me and I feel that is my success. My vision is for
hundreds of smart Dalit women coming together and I will gather them under my
banner."