Placing the Dalit Women at the Intersections: A Sociological Study of Dom Women of Kolkata

Abstract

This article uses Crenshaw’s ( Standford Law Review, 1989, vol. 43, pp. 1241–1299) concept of intersectionality to understand the everyday experiences at the workplace of the lower-caste Dalit women belonging to the manual scavenging community (Dom community) of Kolkata, West Bengal. This article tries to map out and understand the concept of intersectionality by placing the Dalit women at the intersections of caste, class, and gender oppression and see how these structures play out in her everyday life. This article will attempt to place the experiences of the Dalit women vis-à-vis their male and upper-caste lower-class female counterparts to understand how their experiences are similar or different from them. This article is based on the narratives collected through interviews and tries to explore how lying at the intersections produces everyday instances of violence and humiliation for Dalit women. This article highlights how structures of oppression often overlap in various ways to produce our everyday lives.