We didn’t have the money to pay the fees, yet we hoped that my sister and I would secure admission. She was taking a huge financial risk and had no support from anyone else, except Dad, who kept himself in the background.

Mum held onto my hand tightly she must have felt as nervous as other Dalit parents who took an immense leap of faith for their children. Even as his neighbours in the village blame her education for her death, Mahendra Meghwal, a Dalit educator, remains proud of her achievements.Ī similar sentiment drove us to stand in front of the principal’s office at Mussoorie Public School. Bright and ambitious, Delta was the first girl from her village to complete high school and leave to study outside. Delta was seventeen when she was allegedly raped by a teacher and murdered at the polytechnic she attended in Bikaner, Rajasthan. Delta Meghwal’s father, Mahendra Meghwal, faced similar opposition because he sent his daughter to a distant town to study. In addition to the financial barriers, Dalits also face hostility from upper-caste society, even more so when girls are being educated.

It’s also far more challenging since most Dalit children can’t really afford quality education. If they happen to be Dalit, it means even more - educating their children after previous generations were cruelly denied any form of learning becomes their life’s work. For many Indian parents, their children’s education is their greatest achievement. They make do with the bare minimum or sell properties they have painstakingly bought over the years to pay for their kids’ tuition. Most parents who grow up underprivileged, especially Dalits, cherish the life-changing quality of good education. Dutt is now a journalist based in New York. Dutt writes how she hid her identity all through school and college and the tremendous sense of liberation she felt when she finally made her background public. All their earnings were invested in their children’s education. Dutt’s father was an excise officer and her mother worked at several jobs to make ends meet. In Coming out as Dalit, Yashica Dutt skilfully weaves her life story of growing up as a Dalit with the history of the Dalit movement in India.

Yashica dutt books