Locating Dalit women in the Indian caste system, media and women's movement

Abstract

Dalit women in Indian society are triply exploited on the basis of caste, class and gender. In this context after defining the term Dalits sociologically this paper attempts to establish that Dalit women are different from general caste women on the basis of their structural location, occupations they perform and treatment meted out to them by society in general. The paper captures the existing prejudice and contempt against Dalit women which in a way gets articulated by the atrocities committed on them by the so-called upper castes. The paper explores how Mayawati has become an icon of the Dalit society by deconstructing many established images of Dalit and general caste women. We have tried to understand why the Indian media has failed to appreciate her achievements in full glory. Last but not the least why has the Indian women's movement not accepted Mayawati as part of it and defend her from onslaughts of media and prejudices of caste in the male-dominated society?