Meena Kandaswamy interviews Ruth Manorama, who has ‘contributed enormously to breaking the upper-class, upper-caste image of the women’s movement in India’:
“No, no, all women are the same. Women should not separate themselves.” This was the argument extended against me. And I would retort, “No, we are not separating anybody. We are only hailing from a society that has been a victim of segregation and separation.” Then I really began to feel that we, as Dalit women, should form a platform for ourselves, we should articulate our own concerns, our problems so that we can achieve equality. That is how the National Federation of Dalit Women was born in 1987.
A must-read post.
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Hi Meena,
We (a few of my friends and I) run a not-for-profit e-magazine on the social and development sector. We are covering human rights violation and would be delighted if Ruth Manorama could right about her experience as a Dalit woman and an activist for our magazine. We do not have any contact number or email address of hers.. could you help us with her contact info?
Meantime you can check out our previous issues at http://www.itihas.org.in/sattva.html
Regards
Priya