Creative Responses on Dalit Feminism By Teenagers: Part 3 of 3

This is one of the microadvocacy projects by the teen fellows of Orikalankini’s 13 week teen fellowship. Each week the teens meet an activist(Anannya G Madonna, Abirami Jotheeswaran and Priyadharshini) from a marginalised group to hear from them and express or apply their learnings in an art form. Applications for this is free but rigorous. The fellowship opens in June every year. Please follow orikalankini on facebook and instagram to be updated.

For this assignment, each fellow had to research questions for and have a telephonic interview with a Dalit feminist. We also had an activist speak to them and answer their questions for an hour. They have expressed their learnings in various forms.

By Thanvishree:

The image shows –
A woman banging her head as she is tired of being unjustified, being a dalit women. The reason for depicting it this way is that every dalit woman is facing so much violence for being a lower caste women and struggling everyday for her rights, respect and equality.

1. The session was so interesting and I changed my perspective of seeing things. I never thought how being woman and being dalit makes the difference- Indian feminisim has no place for dalit women.They are deemed impure because of lack of ritual purity. CASTEIST PATRIARCHY is scary. Movies and the media representation of dalit women is absent.
2. My interview with Dalit Activist taught me – liberty of marrying a dalit women is still not accepted by upper-caste families. Being educated parents of groom they reject their love when they came to know that she is dalit. They were afraid what people in the society and their community would consider their family as impure. Visualizing the mental status of women made me restlessness.

By Hiba:

By Saumya:

The image has a huge bold text : SMASH the Brahminical Patriarchy.

But upon a closer inspection, one can see the faint text in green. See if you can find them all!

Namely the words: oppression, cast away, excluded, snatched opportunities, historical injustice, bias, violence and discrimination. The reason for the text being formatted this way is because people fail to see the historical injustice done upon Dalits. Also the colour green is used for the so-called “ever-green” history.

The session was really informant and deeply touching. Dalit Feminism needs to be a part of each one of our feminisms. If your feminism isn’t inclusive then your feminism isn’t empowering or helpful. It’s time we learnt and informed ourselves.

My artwork aims to show that what I’ve learnt is: Most of the times other communities’ struggles are not really visible to us. The first step is to see that, acknowledge that and work towards that.

Artist Bios

I am Thanvishree, I shine when I use my passion to use my technological skills and communication skills, being eager to learn, face challenges in enforcing the idea of equality instead of patriarchy in people at young age.And educate elders how harmful patriarchal behavior is for society.

Instagram Id:thanvishreerk_goud

Fundraiser for the work I do: https://milaap.org/fundraisers/support-thanvishree?mlp_referrer_id=3660100&utm_medium=created&utm_source=virtual_bank_account

Hi everyone! My name is Hiba. I’m 16 and I’m originally from Sril lanka. But I live in the US now. I love all types of movies bollywood, Hollywood, C-drama, K-drama, you name it:)(the good kind😅). I like thrillers, comedy, romance, action, and etc. Honestly anything but horror. I enjoy listening to music and eating food:) I lose track of time when I’m engaged in deep and fun conversations with friends!

Fundraiser for the work I do: https://milaap.org/fundraisers/support-thanvishree?mlp_referrer_id=3660100&utm_medium=created&utm_source=virtual_bank_account

I am Saumya Shinde from Mumbai. I am a 16 year old participant from the 13 week global teen fellowship by Orikalankini. It is changing the conversation around sexuality and menstruation.

I shine the best when I use my research and my communication skills to reform and inform the world to dismantle the patriarchy, toxic masculinity, internalised misogyny abd rape culture.

You can reach me via;
Instagram: @_saumya_2805
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saumya.shinde.735
Gmail: contact.saumyashinde@gmail.com