How Dalit women in Mumbai are expressing themselves through folk dance

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Damu Nagar near Mumbai’s Sanjay Gandhi National Park is one of those places where slum fires are a frequent occurrence. When residents hear “Cooker phat gaya" (an LPG cylinder has blasted), they all fetch that one bag of documents, which is always kept handy, and run for their life.

It’s almost been a decade since 2015’s massive fire outbreak, which gutted thousands of homes and every documental evidence they had of their residence. Yet, the residents of Damu Nagar live in constant fear of losing their household in an ongoing conflict with the government to get a new set of documents, which proves their residence in the slum. In the background of such uncertainty, a group of 10 Dalit women from the slum is questioning the status quo, the right to home, the right to equality and other rights promised in the Constitution, through Ambedkari jalsa, a form of folk performance that combines music, poetry and storytelling to convey the ideas and teachings of B.R.

Ambedkar. They are training to become performers at the Nirmik Cultural Centre (NCC). Through this, they are also challenging the deep-rooted discrimination against Dalits and females, at home and in society.

Most of these women, aged 25-65, come from poor, conservative households. They are either homemakers or have blue-collar jobs and are barely educated. But they all have lived the challenges and discrimination that come with being a Dalit woman in a casteist, patriarchal society.

They now want to voice their dissent and demand respect and equal rights. “There is always discrimination," says Dhammasangini Rama Gorakh, a Dalit activist. “And as a woman, it’s far worse," she adds.