Reclaiming Power: Dalit Women and the Journey Toward True Equity
“I am conscious of the fact that if women are conscientised, the untouchable community will progress. I believe women should organise this and will play a major role in ending the social evils. The progress of the Dalit community should be measured in terms of the progress by its womenfolk.” — Dr B R Ambedkar, address to the Dalit Mahila Federation, 1942.
Progress does not always announce itself through policies or headlines. Sometimes, it looks like a Dalit woman standing her ground in a panchayat meeting, or leading a male-dominated organisation, or speaking up when her community is pushed to the margins.
These everyday acts of leadership are not isolated. They are part of a larger, often overlooked pattern in which grassroots leaders are the first to act in times of crisis, yet the last to be recognised. And when those leaders are Dalit women, that invisibility deepens. Still, they continue to build impact, step by step, navigating systems that were never built with them in mind.
This Dalit History Month, we are amplifying the voices of women who have long been told they don’t belong at the table.
The first girl in her village to get an education, Manohari Doss co-founded the ‘Institute for Self Management (ISM)’ in 1982 with her late husband, Edward Doss. Over four decades, ISM, along with the Women Development Resource Centre and the Tamil Nadu Labour Union, has worked to advance the rights and livelihoods of Dalit and hill tribal communities across the state.
One of the groundbreaking achievements of Manohari Doss has been her pivotal role in establishing the Federation for Dalit Women Empowerment, a formal consortium of 65 Dalit women-led grassroots NGOs across 20 districts of Tamil Nadu.
With a vision to impact 100 organisations across the state, this autonomous federation focuses on building leadership, strengthening solidarity and addressing the multiple layers of caste, class and gender-based discrimination that women from the Dalit community face.
Manohari Doss leading a session with the Federation for the Empowerment of Dalit Women.
Its objectives include ensuring access to quality higher education for young girls, creating dignified livelihood opportunities, and enabling women leaders to occupy positions of authority.
This federation, established in the year 2000 and formally registered in 2024, also facilitates collaboration among multiple grassroots NGOs, conducts training, and builds alliances with broader progressive movements. It serves as a state-level platform to amplify the voices and agency of Dalit women leaders.
Manohari Doss has also contributed to advocacy at the international level, including bringing Dalit issues into the UN Charter. Her contributions have been recognised with a Laureate Prize from the Women’s World Summit Foundation in Geneva and featured in a 2004 documentary on the Women Development Resource Centre.
Through her continued efforts and leadership, Manohari’s work illustrates the power of agency, investment, and training to create an upward spiral, where one empowered woman goes on to support, lead, and nurture others. We need to come together to recognise such efforts and support leaders like Manohari who are leading change from the ground up.
In the sugarcane belt of Maharashtra’s Solapur district, many girls grow up without completing their education, often dropping out of school early. The region, frequently affected by drought, presents significant challenges for Dalit communities who rely on small, government-allocated plots of land.
With limited livelihood options, many families are forced to migrate seasonally to sugarcane farms and brick kilns. This migration disrupts children’s education, particularly for girls, who are often pulled into cycles of exploitation that include unpaid labour and child marriage. Even when they remain in school, access to quality education is scarce.
ASVSS was founded in 1987 by a group of young people who, after spending time in Mumbai, returned to their drought-prone hometown, determined to improve the quality of life and work in their community, where migration and untouchability were widespread. Since then, ASVSS has worked to break the prevalence of school dropouts and child migration through community-rooted solutions.
They have established after-school education centres, provided tuition support, and created crèche facilities where children receive meals and care. Foster care and support for grandparents have helped create nurturing environments at home, while counselling ensures emotional support for both children and caregivers.
These efforts allow children to stay back, remain in school, and reclaim their right to learn. To further curb seasonal migration, ASVSS has worked on improving agricultural practices through various organic farming experiments.
What sets ASVSS apart is its intentional commitment to inclusive, community-rooted leadership. Once led primarily by men, the organisation has consciously transitioned leadership to Prabha Yadav, a Dalit woman leader. In a region where girls were once unlikely to complete school, this shift reflects a broader transformation.
This development has been made possible by a parallel shift in governance, with women from the community now serving on the board. When the ideas guiding an institution come from those who have been historically underserved or discriminated against, meaningful and lasting change becomes inevitable.
For generations, safai karamcharis (sanitation workers), many from Dalit communities, have been relegated to the degrading and hazardous practice of manual scavenging. Though officially outlawed, the practice continues in parts of India, sustained by caste-based discrimination, exploitative labour systems, and a systemic denial of dignity and opportunity.
To address this injustice, the National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFDC), a Government of India initiative, launched a programme promoting mechanised sanitation. In Andhra Pradesh, this programme is implemented by ‘Navajeevan’, a grassroots organisation helping sanitation workers transition into safer, more dignified livelihoods with a guaranteed annual income of Rs 1,20,000 per person.
Safai Karamcharis supported through NSKFDC scheme, implemented by Navajeevan
Navajeevan is currently led by Lavannya, a second-generation leader and a Dalit woman, who walked away from a high-paying job in the IT sector to work with people who have long been ignored, stigmatised, and systematically excluded — India’s safai karamcharis.
She grew up participating in community visits alongside her father, K Sahadevaiah, the organisation’s founder, and developed a deep empathy for the struggles of the community. Her leadership evolved naturally during the COVID-19 pandemic, when she took on relief efforts and advocacy for sanitation workers.
Under her leadership, Navajeevan has gained new energy and direction. One of her key initiatives has been focused on ensuring education for children of safai karamcharis, manual scavengers and waste pickers. She identified 200 children, provided them with foundational learning, and enrolled them in government schools for formal education.
This model demonstrates the potential of what can happen when state resources are not merely directed at communities but are implemented by them. By placing agency in the hands of organisations like Navajeevan, the initiative lays the foundation for dignified, self-determined futures. In a country where caste continues to define the boundaries of opportunity, this collaboration proves that those closest to the problem are often best equipped to dismantle it.
Investing in Dalit women’s leadership
Dalit women leaders carry a deep, lived understanding of the challenges their communities face. Their proximity to the issues enables them to design interventions rooted in dignity, equity, and self-determination. They are not speaking for the community; they are the community.
And yet, despite their insight and leadership, the absence of grassroots voices in decision-making roles within institutions committed to social justice often reproduces the very inequalities we seek to dismantle. True inclusion is not just about visibility or representation. It is about power, who holds it, who is allowed to wield it, and whose wisdom is trusted to guide change.
Today, Dalit women are leading movements that turn caste-bound labour into dignified entrepreneurship. They are reimagining education for children of migrant workers, building statewide federations to demand systemic accountability, and shaping new models of governance rooted in collective resilience.
These are not isolated stories, they are blueprints for the kind of just, equitable society we must build. The question is no longer whether Dalit women are leading. The question is: will we create an ecosystem where their leadership is acknowledged and supported with trust, resources, and sustained solidarity?
As Dr B R Ambedkar reminded us, those who suffer the most must have the first claim to power.
The stories of Manohari, Prabha, and Lavannya are just a glimpse of what is possible when we invest in the leadership of Dalit women. Rebuild India Fund is committed to nurturing such leadership, supporting over 500 grassroots organisations across India, with a strong focus on those led by women.
It is a growing movement that believes those closest to the problem are also closest to the solution. To discover more about the phenomenal women leading this change and how you can be part of building a more just and equitable future, visit https://rebuildindiafund.org/en/.
This article is written by Manohari, Prabha, and Lavannya.
This article is sponsored by Dasra.
Edited by Khushi Arora
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