A Day in the Life of a Dalit

Tomorrow and Thursday I will be speaking at a local public school. I have been asked to visit a few classes to discuss Social Injustice in India. I have some pictures, and a little presentation prepared that should last about 30 minutes or so. The total time they are giving me is an hour each class so for the second half I will be giving them some group work. I plan to break the students into groups of 3-5 people and then give them a scenario that many people find themselves in. My goal is to make the students think outside of our experiences, and put themselves in the shoes of the oppressed. Below are the five scenarios I am giving them.

1) Both you and your spouse are Dalits. Because of this the village you are living in has been taking away your farm land and charging you extra fees for things they don’t charge other people. Eventually its gets to the point that you have almost nothing. You would like to leave and go somewhere else, but you have no money to get there, and no skill except farming. You also have 1 thirteen year old daughter who is malnourished because you can’t afford food. Although you have done all you can, her health is declining. One day a man offers to marry your daughter. He is about 25 years older than her (she is only 13), and you know very well that he will abuse her sexually, physically, and emotionally. However he will give her food, and if she stays here she will continue to starve. What do you do?

This is actually a true story. The name of the little girl was Phoolan Devi. Her parents did in fact allow the man to marry her. She was abused so much she tried many times to run away back home. However if her parents allowed her back it could have easily lead to the husbands family trying to kill her or her family for shaming him. So they consistently sent her back to him until she ran away from the village all together.

2) Both you and your spouse are Dalits. You both work very hard every day but still are barely surviving. In order to have enough money to survive you had to take your 13 year old son out of school to work at a restaurant bussing tables. You hated to do it, but he was starving and this is the only way your family can make enough money to eat. One day a very well to do man comes to your village. He tells you and your spouse that he sees how much you are struggling, and has a solution for you. He offers to give you a large sum of money on loan. He then offers to train your son to work for him in a professional job in the capital city. This is the kind of opportunity you have been praying for, but although you are familiar with the company you don’t know this man very well. What do you do?

This is a very common story. The unfortunate thing is it is never as good as it seems. This boy will be taken to the city and forced to work 18 hour days for very little pay. He will be forced to pay off the loan given to his parents, but will be charged interest at such a rate he will never be able to pay it off. His task-masters threaten to harm his family if he tries to run away.

3) You are a 15 year old Dalit girl. Although your family was unable to provide you with an education or a job you are all very close to each other. Life has been difficult, but not impossible. One day a lady in the village that you know very well tells you that jobs in America can pay as much as $50 a day (your family might make that in a month). The woman explains that she has friends that can get you to America but it will cost $4,000 to get there (passport, visa, plane ticket etc.). The woman is kind enough to loan you the money. This is the kind of opportunity you have been hoping for and it would take care of your entire family, but America is very far away and a $4,000 loan is very expensive. What do you do?

This is a common story as well. Unfortunately it is extremely unlikely she will ever make it to America. What happens is instead she will end up in brothel. The "owners" will tell her she can leave when she pays her debts, but again for the same reasons as #3 it is very difficult to pay of the loan. She will also be told that her family will be harmed if she tries to escape.

4) You are a Dalit man. You have been married for 15 years and have 2 boys. Your family has lived in the same village for generations and you have been able to make a decent living farming. However a few months ago your wife became very sick. You have no idea what it is but she can hardly get out of bed. Although the local hospital is supposed to be free the doctors have demanded bribes before they look at her. On top of that the medicines they prescribe are very costly. Eventually you had to sell all your land and you have almost nothing left, but your wife still needs 2-3 more months of medication before she is cured. An upper class man in the village offers to give you a loan that is just enough to cover the costs, however you have to send your oldest son to work for him in order to pay it off. You know it will be close to slavery for your son so what do you do? Your wife or your son?

Again not an uncommon story. Unfortunately there is no easy solution. It is easy for us to point our fingers and explain how horrible it is for someone to "sell" their children, but many of these people have sent their children off with tears in their eyes because they didn't know what else to do.

5) You are a Dalit woman who found out she was HIV+. Although you were faithful to your husband your whole life your husband wasn’t and you got it from him. You are breast feeding your baby daughter and the doctor tells you that you must stop otherwise although it is not guaranteed the baby could get it also. However bottle feeding is NEVER practiced and people will assume you have HIV. If they find out you are HIV+ you will be kicked out out of the village with your baby, and your husband will disown you. Being kicked out of the village means that you have no means of survival (for you and your baby) except prostitution. What do you do?

This was actually edited. the full version is that many times the husband will keep seeing prostitutes and then refuse to wear a condom with his wife. So she will get many different forms of HIV each of which working differently to destroy her body. When it does come out that she is infected her husband may blame her for both of their infections.

The purpose of these scenarios is not to shock, but rather to give people a different perspective. To think outside of ourselves and put ourselves in their shoes if only briefly. I hope that after walking in their shoes for even just a moment it will lead us to compassion, and a desire to bring hope to the hopeless.


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