“Speak Out”- Voices of Dalit and Tribal women leaders

Speak Out is an event organized by SRED,  Tamilnadu Dalit Women’s movement  and Tamilnadu Women’s Forum to amplify the voices, issues, concerns and success stories of Dalit and Tribal women. The success stories are best practice models for budding leaders. The forum opens discussion on prevailing issues and to seek solutions from experienced people in the sector.

Dalit and Tribal women leaders across the state participate in Speak Out. The slogan is “Rise, Resist and Reclaim Rights”. The women leaders share about issues of caste and gender violence, their struggles and accomplishments.

The sharing include  atrocities against Dalit women, land right struggles, issues faced by manual scavengers, the problems of Mathamma women ( a practice of temple dedication of women to  Goddess Mathamma), issues faced by Irula tribal women, issues concerning promotion of  Dalit and Tribal women’s leadership and attaining political power, budget for Dalit women, gender and caste discrimination faced by Dalit women representatives elected into local governing bodies, the problems in the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment guarantee scheme, (A Govt Of India programme for rural employment) issues of the unorganized women labour, issues of adolescent girls, issues of street vendors, issues of sex workers, girl child abuse and impact of pesticides on women and children.

After the sharing from woman leaders, there would be response from activists, researchers and academicians, who help the leaders to address the issue from a holistic perspective. The leaders are happy about addressing their issues and to share their accomplishments. There would be traditional drum beating, a Dalit  folk art.  Women leaders are honored in the conference. So far fifteen such state level conferences have been held. These conferences are strategies to build networking ,solidarity action and feminist movement building against casteist patriarchy, neo liberal economic agenda and fundamentalism.