Sahityasetu

Abstract:

Indian subcontinent, being the home of numerous castes, tribes and communities has shown that coexistence of diverse forces is possible. However, various issues that emerge from such co-existence should not also be ignored and need be addressed. Such issues include inequality and exploitation in the names of caste and gender. In the four storied Indian social structure, the Dalits are placed at the lowest putting them in disadvantageous position in multiple regards. Similarly, the women in Indian society are also forced to live in periphery. Therefore, it is easily understandable that the Dalit women face double jeopardy in their lives. This paper analyzes how two regional Indian texts: Homen Borgohain’s novel The Fisherman’s Daughter from Assamese Literature and Baburao Bagul’s short story “Prisoner of Darkness” from Marathi Literature shed light on the issue of the exploitation of Dalit women as reflected in their contemporary society. This paper attempts to analyze if their gender identity amplifies the exploitation faced by Dalit women. The paper is an endeavor to delve deeper to find out if the reasons and processes under which these exploitations take place are nothing but ways to execute gender based violence prevalent in a pan-Indian level. It also tries to examine what are the different ways in which the oppression of Dalit women occurs. It is only through education and awareness that these disparities can come to an end.

Key Words: Dalit, Exploitation, Gender-based violence, Regional, Women.

Caste in India is a social construct that has been prevalent from ancient times. The Vedic Varna system mentioned in Manusmriti describes Indian society as being divided into four levels: Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra. The text mentions that Brahmanas originated from the head of lord Vishnu; similarly, Kshatriyas were born from the arms, Vaishyas from the abdomen and Shudras from the feet of Vishnu. The fact that Shudras came into being from the feet of the Lord, they are thus automatically regarded as inferior and as outcastes. Social stigmas such as untouchability got associated with them. It was much later that these downtrodden people started to be referred to as ‘Dalits’. Etymologically the term means oppressed or broken. On the other hand, legally the term refers to the group of people listed as the scheduled castes under Article 341 of Indian Constitution. While defining the same term, Gangadhar Pantawane, a Dalit writer from Maharashtra comments that Dalit is not a caste, but “a symbol of change and revolution” (“Short History of Word ‘Dalit’” Para.10). Thus the word ‘Dalit’ is directly related to the consciousness of the lower caste of Indian society. The lived experience of these people started to find expression through forms of art, such as literature.

The term ‘Dalit Literature’ was used for the first time in 1958 in the pioneering conference of Maharashtra Dalit Sahitya Sangha held in Mumbai. The influence of Dalit Panthers is also noteworthy here. Under such social conditions the rising awareness among the lower caste regarding their rights contributed to the construction of strong Dalit consciousness in them. As a result, Dalit Movement and Dalit Literature took up the pace. This literary genre that started its voyage in Marathi Literature, soon found horizons in other Regional Literature such as Bangla, Hindi, Punjabi, Assamese, Tamil etc. Regional Literature can be defined as “fiction and poetry that focuses on the character, dialect, customs, topography and other features particular to a specific region” (Campbell Para.1). The two regional texts under discussion in this paper are based on two essentially different societies. One is a novella based on the Northeast Indian state of Assam, and the second one is a short story that portrays the coastal state of Maharashtra situated in South India. However, with closer observation it is visible that the Dalit women represented in both the literary works share common life experiences, similar kinds of deprivation and equally heartbreaking exploitation; thus the texts suggest the pan-Indian presence of these traits.

Homen Borgohain was a prominent Assamese author, editor and journalist who was awarded with Sahitya Akademi Award in 1978. His works included varied aspects of Assamese culture and life style. These works also reflected different controversial and sensitive issues of the region as well. Some of Borgohain’s notable works include Pita Putra, Astarag , Subala, Matsyagandha etc. His novella Matshyagandha, published in 1987 gathered mass appreciation. It was translated into English by his son Pradipta Borgohain under the title “The Fisherman’s Daughter” and was included in the anthology titled The Collected Works of Homen Borgohain: Short Stories and Novellas in the year 2017. The novella vividly portrays the life and struggles of the Kaivarta or fishermen community (often referred to using the colloquial derogatory term ‘Dom’) living in poverty-stricken village of Goroimari. Noteworthy is that the fisherman community or Kaivarta, along with Bania, Dhobi, Namasudra, Sutradhar etc. are some of the castes living in Assam who fall under the umbrella category of Dalits. At the very outset of The Fisherman’s Daughter, we see the abuse that Dalits undergo on a daily basis. The novella tells the tale of Duryodhan, who is a hardworking Kaivarta man who makes his own fortune by thinking ahead of his time and adapting to new ways of earning. He dreams of a future full of rainbows and sunshine; even wishes to marry his two beautiful daughters off to grooms of different villages having government job. It is to be noted that these kinds of expectations were more than daydreams for him as it was almost impossible for the Dalits to climb up on the social ladder. Adding to the misfortune, Duryodhan and his two sons die soon in Cholera and his wife Memeri and the two daughters Beula and Menaka are left alive by the epidemic to suffer with no means of earning at all. Fortunately, Memeri is able to marry the two girls off to one of the wealthiest families of the village. As the household of the elder daughter Beula starts gleaming with wealth, on the contrary the younger daughter Menaka and her family fall into the chasm of poverty due to the lazy lifestyle of Purna, Menaka’s husband. Menaka also falls prey to opium like her mother and lives a terrible life. This helpless yet bold character is the protagonist of the novella. One day, Menaka comes across Kamala, her sister-in-law who is about to commit suicide as she has become pregnant following an illegitimate affair with a higher caste young man Moniram. Menaka decides that she’ll give justice to the poor girl and at the end of the narrative, it is seen that she manages to make Moniram marry Kamala. The novella brings into light how under varied circumstances Dalit women have to suffer in an extremely biased misogynist society.

The second author under consideration in the paper is a pioneer in the field of Modern Litearture in Marathi. Baburao Ramji Bagul impacted the social and literary scenario of Maharashtra to a great extent during the late 20th century. Particularly, in the genre of Dalit writing his contribution in exemplary. His notable works include Mi Jaat Chorli Hoti! , Maran Swasta Hot Ahe, Ambedkar Bharat etc. His short story collection Mi Jaat Chorli Hoti! was translated into English by Jerry Pinto under the title When I Hid My Caste: Stories in the year 2018. The short story under consideration in this paper is extracted from the abovementioned collection. The short story deals with Banoo, a low caste ‘Murali’, a girl dedicated to God. However she is objectified by a lot of men and finally Ramrao, an elderly man from higher caste buys and keeps her in his ‘wada’(house) as a mistress. It creates a sensation in society, and when Ramrao dies, all the people including the villagers start to condemn Banoo as a witch. The people blame her for the death of Ramrao, the mental harassment that Ramrao’s family had to undergo as she became the mistress, and also for the anti-social nature of Banoo’s own teenage son Daulat. Under such circumstances Devram, the son of Ramrao rushes to kill her after the cremation of his father. But after seeing the mourning mistress, he is struck by her beauty as he expresses his wish to make Banoo his mistress. When she refuses, he tries to disrobe Banoo ultimately chasing her to the road. As she runs through the roads seeking help from the onlookers to save her life and character, surprisingly enough not only the villagers refuse to help, but also contribute to her agony by abusing her verbally. Devram gets hold of and tries to physically exploit her in the road in front of the village folks, and more unfortunately, the villagers encourage him to do so. Daulat appears and as his mother pleads him to save her, he unleashes years of hatred that he had buried inside his heart and pushes her away. But as Devram proceeds to rape Banoo, all of a sudden Daulat stabs Devram and all the villagers start devouring him with brutal attacks. In the final part of the narrative, Daulat cries out for his mother and Banoo is seen trying to stop the villagers. The story is kept open ended, but the readers are fully aware that this discourse is leading to mob lynching of Banoo and Daulat. Both these regional texts under consideration: The Fisherman’s Daughter and “Prisoner of Darkness” are pioneering works of Dalit Literature in their respective regions. However, with close observation, it is palpable that the issues of discrimination, exploitation and gender-based violence addressed in these works are not actually exclusive to the region; instead they have an appeal that is fairly universal.

The issues related to Dalit in India are issues engraved deep in the social system. Gopal Guru observed that “…as Dalit theorists have amply shown, the category ‘dalit’ has been historically arrived at, sociologically described and discursively constituted” (Cited in Raj 57). In other words, the constitution of Dalit identity has been based on social milieu of different regions of India where the downtrodden face similar kinds of exploitation under diverse forms of agency. Figures such as M. K. Gandhi and B. R. Ambedkar were the ones setting the foundation of Dalit Consciousness in India in the 20th century. However, these two giants held opposing views on this regard. While discussing the views of M. K. Gandhi, S. Margaret points out that, “…According to him, the four fold caste system was the ‘eternal principle’, ‘the soul’ of Hindu social life. Disrupting this system ‘amounts to creating disorder’. In Gandhi’s imagination, the problem of dalits was an ‘internal’ issue of Hinduism… In this system, the spiritual regeneration of the upper castes becomes central to the upliftment of the untouchables” (84). Here, it is obvious that Gandhi puts focus on spiritual rather than direct social reformation. In his views, it is only spiritual awakening that can pave the way to the abolition of social stigmas. He proposes the term ‘Harijan’, meaning God’s children to refer to the Dalits. On the other hand, Ambedkar states that, “the outcaste is by-product of the caste system. There will be outcaste as long as there are castes. Nothing can emancipate the outcastes except the destruction of caste system” (Kheer 227). Thus, Ambedkar insists on the total disintegration of Indian caste system for the development of Dalits to be possible.

Similar to the lower castes, the entire segment of women occupies disadvantageous position in Indian society. It is interesting to note that there is considerable amount of ambiguity about the nature and status of women in Indian society. While on one hand, women are worshipped as deities, on the other hand oppression and exclusion of women labeling them as impure and evil is not something unheard of in India. While some sacred texts give them as exalted status by saying “the Gods live where women are worshipped”. But, there is another profile of women, also sanctified by religious writings and folklore; “she is believed to be fickle and fragile. She is sensuous, a temptress, given to falsehood, folly, greed, trickery, impurity and thoughtless action. She can thus be regarded as the root of all evil” (Dube 106). This dual treatment of women is visible in Dalit castes as well. Although Ambedkar considered “dalit women as active participants of a caste-less utopia” (Margaret 83), they face no less amount of disparity and abuse. Dalit castes, being close to nature and indigenous culture, often fall prey to superstitions and ancient customs that ultimately lead to dehumanization of women as well as gender-based violence. Effects of such customs can be seen in The Fisherman’s Daughter and “Prisoner of Darkness” where the women characters have little to no access to education. The societies they live in strongly believe that formal education is not the forte of women. None of the female characters in the two texts set their feet in any educational institution. It is mentioned in The Fishermsn’s Daughter that, “even if one was to go over the terrain with a fine toothcomb, it was doubtful if a literate girl could be found in this community” (Borgohain 245). For the same reason, the women have no ways to earn their livelihood. They are so dependent on the male members of the family that the women cannot provide for themselves in the time of need. Such condition of women is clearly visible when in the lifetime of Duryodhan, Memeri and the entire family live a life without poverty even after belonging to the lowest caste of society. Being a Dalit is not something that drastically affects their lives. But as Duryodhan and his two sons die of Cholera, the rest of the family: Memeri and her two daughters Beula and Menaka are devastated: “With a long and heavy sigh, Memeri braced herself for the day of privation, which loomed ahead” (275). It clearly indicates the fact that “Assamese women live a cocooned life in a patriarchal society” (Borkataki & Kalita 102). Banoo undergoes the same condition after Ramrao’s death as she is left with no means of survival on her own. Women’s physical beauty was given much more importance than other qualities in them. It is mentioned that “beauty had to compensate for the lack of education… Many educated young men had resorted to inter-caste marriages after not being able to find worthy marriage partners in their own community” (Borgohain 245). Here, the word worthy exclusively denotes physical beauty. Objectification of female body is depicted as something that governs social constructions such as marriage. Even caste and community hold secondary positions in this state of affairs. It is quite obvious that being women is as disadvantageous for these characters as being Dalits.

If Indian social structure is observed closely, it can be understood that the lower castes are often subservient to the extent that they do not prefer to raise their voices against the inequality they endure. While assessing the same tendency Barrington Moore argues that one probable reason of Indian lower class/caste being more docile was because of the social regulation through the theory of Karma or reincarnation that was prevalent in the rural society. These people actually believed that “a person who obeyed the requirements of caste and etiquettes in his life would be born in a higher caste in the next. Submissiveness in this life was to be rewarded by a rise in the social scale in the next” (335). Thus under the veil of spiritualism the disparity continue to flourish. Correspondingly, the women (who are already oppressed and considered as the weaker section of society) belonging to the Dalit caste are trained to remain submissive withstanding multiple variants of exploitation that are subjected to them. In fact, the Dalit women face double jeopardy in the sense that they are not only Dalits but also women, making them more vulnerable. Examples are prominent in both the regional texts taken up for comparison in the paper. Menaka, the protagonist of The Fisherman’s Daughter is slapped by a high caste woman as her shadow fell on the grains of boiled and dried rice that the lady was spreading out in the yard. As soon as the lady notices the shadow of five or six years old Menaka falling on the grain, “the woman boiled over with rage, giving Menaka a stinging slap and started to shriek...(that) the entire basket of ukhua(boiled and dried) rice is wasted” (Borgohain 129) because “In some Hendoo(Hindu)’s yard if a Dom’s shadow falls on grain spread out to dry, that grain is believed to be tainted, spoiled” (156). Similarly, in “Prisoner of Darkness”, Banoo had to do everything to remain the sole interest of Ramrao. But as soon as Ramrao dies, everyone turns against her believing that it was her sin to become the mistress of a higher caste person. Nobody pondered over the fact that Banoo had no other choices than becoming the mistress of Ramrao or joining a harem. All the villagers cursed her and one of them exclaimed, “That prostitute has ruined everything. Tomorrow every Mang, Mahar and Chamar (Dalit castes) is going to turn up… The whore has soiled all notions of caste and creed” (Bagul 12). It can be understood that her helplessness is seen by the villagers as an offensive rebellion. Here another concern to ponder upon is that if the exploitation of these characters has amplified because of their gender. The answer is well depicted in the two literary works. In Borgohain’s novella, Kamala is impregnated and is denied recognition by the child’s father. On the same note, in Bagul’s short story, Banoo is harassed from her childhood by different men. All the women in the two texts are objectified by the society in the names of norms, customs and rules. The village-legend of Nangeli from early 19th century illustrates a similar story of misogyny in the name of customs. According to the legend, in the Kingdom of Tranvancore(now in the state of Kerala) the Hindu women of lower castes had to pay Breast Tax to cover the upper part of their bodies. Nangeli opposed the dehumanizing rule by chopping off her breasts and presenting them in front of the officer that came to collect the tax. It gives a vivid idea how from centuries the Dalit women are subjected to exploitation on a greater level than the men of the same caste. These types of exploitation in due course lead to gender-based violence. While Menaka can be seen fighting against the discrimination and exploitation in her own way, Banoo receives a pitiful ending.

The entire community of Dalits is represented as addicted and ignorant in the two texts. S. Margaret points out the same tendency in Dalit Literature on a pan-Indian level:

The untouchables are represented as drunkards and as prone to self-destruction because of their habits, customs and festivals. They are portrayed as dehumanized bunch of people and termed as dirty, uncivilized and barbaric (85)

This observation is true to a great extent in the two texts under scrutiny. In Borgohain’s novella, the lower cast people portrayed are mostly addicted to opium. It is mentioned that “In the entire district, the village where Menaka lived was the poorest, and yet the number of kaniyas or dope-addicts was the highest. The folks who were scarred and crippled by merciless fate tried to forget the unbearable pains and miseries of life through the poultice offered by opium” (Borgohain 400). The lower caste villagers burdened by poverty and suffering, seek refuge in such life-threatening substances. Dalit women also fall prey to such tendencies as we see in The Fisherman’s Daughter Memeri and Menaka, both are addicted to opium. What is more heartbreaking is that many women like them take up opium as “medicine” (347) seeking relieve from the diseases that could not be cured by traditional remedies or local exorcists. They had no access to scientific treatments or medicines. We come across how following an abortion a girl dies “after going through unspeakable agonies for a day and a night and almost drowning in her own pool of blood” (641). Under such circumstances the poor village folks adopt opium in the hope of temporary relief from their pain. But soon they succumb to this poison and become more miserable. Their condition is such that “what as medicinal succor ultimately become a deep, lifelong, unshakeable addiction” (400). On a same note, Banoo is also condemned as barbaric and dehumanized. She is blamed for all the mishaps in her own and Ramrao’s life, as if she’s the reason for them all. But, she is no evil. She never wishes adversely for anyone and remains submissive for the sake of her survival. Ramrao’s death shatters her. It is mentioned that “as someone who had loved Ramrao more than life itself, loved him so much than she had until his death strangled her maternal instincts and kept her son Daulat at arm’s length, Banoo was sitting and weeping in her room…as she thought of the dark days ahead” (Bagul 14). As if she understands that with the death of her lover, she is now vulnerable to the biased world ready to swallow her up. It can be pointed out that after their male counterparts’ death both Memeri and Banoo have preconceived notions that there are dark days ahead. In this light it os detectable that along with their caste, other social factors such as misogyny and patriarchy are also responsible for the exploitation and violence that Dalit women face.

The exploitation that Dalit women face is acutely represented in The Fisherman’s Daughter and “Prisoner of Darkness”. The women in the texts withstand both verbal and physical abuse. For example when Menaka refuses to abort the child of Moniram that is in the womb of Kamala, Moniram abuses her as “Witch! Demoness!” (Borgohain 1032), “She-devil” (1060) and even threatens to kill her saying “I’ll choke the life out of you” (1032). Banoo also faces such life-threatening situation when Devram chases to rape and kill her.in such a terrible situation “Banoo, who has never descended the stairs in all the twenty years she had lived in the wada, was running, lost to all sense of decency, in order to protect her life and character” while the villagers “stood, in groups, watching her run, surprised at her behavior but also taking in her beauty” (Bagul 16). While she was trying to escape, nobody came forward to help her. Instead the onlookers were making sexual and inappropriate comments on her body. One villager exclaimed, “Bring that demon here. Let’s strip her naked and take her in procession through the village” (12). Prior to that, when Devram goes to kill Banoo, after seeing her “confusion erupted in his head. He could not decide whether to make Banoo pay for the suffering that had killed his mother or to make love to her. With each glance, he was seized again by a new aspect of her beauty” (14). Then he asks her to be his mistress. But when she refuses, Devram turns furious and tries to disrobe her. It vividly shows the position of women in the society that Bagul presented in his short story. The author has made no attempt to conceal the severe objectification of female body in this work. Instead, he has brought out such tendencies of the society in a more blatant manner when Banoo is described in the most inhumanely way possible: “Her only existence had been as Ramrao’s lover, an object of lust” (17). Ramrao “bought her with money and the promise that she would be his alone…she danced to Ramrao’s tune…so that Ramrao would not get angry, she paid no attention to baby Daulat; and in order to prevent other babies from coming along, she had her tubes tied on Ramrao’s order. All this so that her own life might not be destroyed and Ramrao’s powerful lust should not find another object” (18). This passage brings forth multiple social evils all at once. Ramrao buys Banoo from her parents. It shows how the objectification of women starts from their childhood where their own parents are active participants. Ramrao, even after having a family, takes Banoo to his home and keeps her separately. Polygamy of this elderly man leads to the impending chaos that destroys not only Banoo but also his own family. Banoo gets pregnant after becoming Ramrao’s mistress. But their child is not accepted by Ramrao. Even Banoo ignores her child for her own sake. She becomes barren. In other words, Ramrao utilizes Banoo solely for his own entertainment and does not want to take up any responsibilities related to that relationship. She is fully aware of the fact that she is nothing more than an object for consumption. So she adapts herself accordingly. In Borgohain’s novella, Moniram similarly considers Kamala as an object for consumption. He promises to marry Kamala and seduces her. As a result, she is impregnated. But, after the incident, Moniram totally forgets about her and even proceeds to marry a girl from a well-to-do family. When Menaka approaches him with the news of Kamala’s pregnancy, at first he is in denial, then he is terrified: “the blood was completely drained from Moniram’s face. He looked as pale as the face of a dead man. His knees also started knocking” (Borgohain 945). He bribes Menaka saying, “I’ll give you twenty silver coins, not one paisa less. You and Kamala divide the amount between the two of you. But you must abort the embryo, bai” (992). It is quite evident from his statement that he never considered Kamala anything else than an object. By asking Menaka to divide the bribe with Kamala, Moniram shows how the society considers the chastity and womb of women as commodities that have price. This shows how extreme the objectification and humanization of women in the society is. It also highlights the hypocrisy of society where a Dalit cannot be touched but a Dalit woman can be used for quenching sexual thirst. The chastity of the Dalit women is paid no respect to. Instead, it is considered as something valueless, worthy of ridicule and available for consumption.

However, these aspects of the lives of Dalit women seen in the two regional texts are not something unheard of amongst other castes. This year itself there were at least two incidents where women were striped in public places. According to NDTV reports, on April 3 of 2021 a woman was stripped naked, beaten up by in-laws over dowry in Odisha. Likewise on June 9 of this year, a woman from Assam is dragged out of her husband’s home in northern West Bengal by a group of villagers. They stripped and paraded her naked, the entire incident was filmed too. Similar incidents have taken place numerous times all over India. The women who were exploited belong to different castes, creed and religion. This pattern of gender-based violence aptly points out that the suffering of women is a multifaceted issue which is fueled by different social factors. Belonging to a higher caste cannot save the women from objectification and exploitation.

Another terrible blow that Dalit women receive is in the form of intra-caste exploitation. Women are subjugated not only by members of other castes, or not essentially by men. In fact, they are often tormented by the members of their own caste irrespective of gender. For instance, when Kamala expresses the circumstances under which she was seduced by Moniram, Menaka burns up with rage blaming Kamala of seducing Moniram instead. She abuses Kamala saying, “…you fickle, wild wretch of a female…Soaking yourself in the rain and showing all you’ve got-it was you who maddened him. How is Moniram to blame?” (Borgohain 752). It shows how deeply misogyny is engraved in the society. Even women tend to blame fellow women despite being aware of the double jeopardy that they mutually suffer. One of the pioneering works in the field of Dalit Literature, Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable shows the same inclination where a young Dalit girl Sohini is abused by a woman of her own caste, Gulabo for no apparent reasons. When Sohini does not even protest the abuse, Gulabo becomes more restless and exclaims, “You annoy me with your silence, you illegally begotten” (Anand 17). It reflects how even submissiveness and innocence of women are viewed as offensive behavior. These kinds of intra-caste and intra-communal exploitations are pointed out by A. Gudarvarthy:

…many times the oppressed tends to become oppressor or sub-oppressors. They might consciously strive to identify with the opposite pole…The oppressed often have the image of oppressor strongly entrenched in their minds and they have no readily available radical alternative subjectivity (86)

Through this statement, a lucid understanding can be achieved of the self-destructive tendency of intra-caste violence that we witness in these Dalit writings. It can be observed that all the disparity ultimately comes down to misogyny. The underlying tendency of condemning women can be unmistakably observed in “Prisoner of Darkness” as Banoo is being inhumanely exploited by the mass, a villager cries out, “Such witches deserve this kind of treatment. Or in this Kaliyug women will get out of hand” (Bagul 12). It displays the objectification of women and the fear of patriarchy of losing domination over women. This statement unveils the collapsed morality and ethics of the society where gender equality is nothing but a distant dream. The people are highly biased and ignorant paving the way for consolidation of discrimination, exploitation and misogyny. The mindset of the people is far from rational, and under such state of affairs internalized misogyny and toxic masculinity ultimately lead to gender-based violence and exploitation of women.

As portrayed in The Fisherman’s Daughter and “Prisoner of Darkness”, Dalit women are exposed to varied types of disparity and abuse throughout their lives. If their condition is analyzed in a global perspective, it is well-visible that women throughout the globe undergo similar exploitations on various levels. But in the case of Dalit women the suffering increases as they occupy disadvantageous position on both caste and gender basis. This double jeopardy must be addressed so that thorough development of the society can be possible. In the two texts under consideration, we can point out certain traits that may lead to gender based violence or women being exploited. On the basis of that analysis, some probable solutions can be proposed. For the upliftment of Dalit women, they must be given proper formal education. The basic reason of their vulnerability is that these women are not independent. If proper formal education and/or vocational training is provided to the women of lower castes, the disparity with surely decrease as they get exposed to various career opportunities. This can decrease Dalit women’s dependency on their male counterparts or other male members of the family. In this way, the chance of their probable exploitation due to lack of wealth and means to earn livelihood will decline significantly. Secondly, awareness must be raised amongst the people irrespective of caste and gender regarding the importance of social integration and the rejection of inequality in any form. Awareness drives about social equality, and educating people about the much needed social tolerance and mutual understanding can bring in great changes in society. Specially, the Dalit women need to be made aware of their strengths and rights so that the endless loop of exploitation comes to an end. Moreover, there is dire need of refining social norms and customs of Indian society. Although social inequality was discarded in the year 1950 through Article 15 and untouchability was abolished in the year 1955 through Article 17 of Indian Constitution, the stigma and ancient notions still remain unharmed. Therefore, the disparity has never left the society. With the refinement of social norms, and giving humanistic and rational outlook to all the people, the society can slowly but surely develop. Fourthly, necessary health infrastructure is essential for these women. Having no access to scientific treatment and medications has contributed to their suffering. Lack of knowledge concerning their own health also contributes to Dalit women’s misery. Finally, the superstitions regarding impurity or evil in women must be abolished at any cost. As long as these beliefs persist, there can be no progress possible for Dalit women. All the people of Indian society must be willing participants in this crusade against gender based violence and exploitation to bring social equality in every level.

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