Transgender individuals are one of the most marginalised gender groups in India. Even after getting citizenship rights, many of them do not have proper documents and certificates. Therefore, this study seeks to explore the obstacles that have hindered transgender individuals from availing the required certificates. The Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise (SMILE) portal is used to comprehend the beneficiaries of transgender certificates and identity documents. To assess the status and implementation of the scheme, primary data were collected through a field survey and focus group discussions (FGDs). The study sample comprised 121 individuals identifying as transgender, selected from Deoria district in Uttar Pradesh. The findings suggest that a small number of transgender individuals have obtained the certificate but are not accessing the associated benefits, even though their population size is the highest in Uttar Pradesh. The FGDs provide various insights, including low awareness about the portal and poor acceptability of the schemes among transgender individuals. This is because of a lack of promotion and inefficient funding allocation for the composite health programme. Promoting and educating transgender individuals about the SMILE scheme, as well as providing necessary information through advertisements, is crucial. Additionally, allocating funds for the composite health programme can enhance its acceptance among transgender individuals.
This article examines the political participation and empowerment of the Batwal community in Seela village through the framework of B. R. Ambedkar’s ideology of educate, organise and agitate. The study adopts a descriptive research design and is based on primary field data collected through purposive sampling. The sample consists of thirty-four households, comprising 110 respondents, and the study was conducted in Reasi district. The study explores how increased awareness, participation in democratic institutions, and collective mobilisation enabled members of the Batwal community historically marginalised within the Scheduled Castes to achieve representation in the panchayati raj system. Using field data and village-level electoral information, the study analyses the transformation of local power structures and the growing political consciousness of the Batwal community, particularly during the 2018 panchayat elections when a Batwal candidate won a panch election for the first time on a non-reserved seat. The findings illustrate how grassroots democratic institutions and increasing political awareness have begun to challenge traditional caste hierarchies and exclusion.
On 13 January 2026, the University Grants Commission (UGC) notified the University Grants Commission (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026 (hereafter the Equity Regulations, 2026 ). Since then, there have been widespread agitations and protests, particularly in Uttar Pradesh and certain universities in Delhi. The Supreme Court of India heard the Public Interest Litigations and stayed the implementation of the Equity Regulations, 2026 . The way ahead is to strike a balance between the competing concerns of equality and social justice. The Equity Regulations, 2026 require refinement by expanding the grounds of discrimination to include other forms, such as religion, race and language. The clause providing for punishment of false complainants needs to be revoked. The presumptive exclusion of the general category needs to be addressed to make the Regulations more inclusive. In doing so, the hard-earned institutional mechanisms to check discriminatory practices against historically marginalised sections must remain undisturbed and be retained.
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, was introduced in India to safeguard the rights and dignity of transgender individuals in healthcare, education and employment. While the Act marks an important legislative milestone, its implementation has revealed limitations, particularly in healthcare. A key concern is the limited provision of gender-affirming care, which remains fragmented across regions. This review article synthesises academic literature from the past decade, including peer-reviewed articles, policy documents and empirical studies, with a focus on research published after the 2019 legislation. The review identifies barriers hindering equitable healthcare access for transgender individuals, including a shortage of trained medical professionals who can provide competent care, insufficient healthcare infrastructure for specialised treatments, and the absence of standardised clinical guidelines for gender-affirming procedures. The analysis highlights regional disparities, with urban centres offering better services compared to rural and semi-urban areas, where healthcare resources remain scarce. By examining these gaps, the article argues for strengthening policy frameworks, enhancing professional training and ensuring consistent healthcare delivery. It also suggests future pathways for research and reform aimed at building an inclusive healthcare system that upholds the rights promised under the Act.
This article interrogates the marginalisation and epistemic erasure of dalit women within mainstream feminist and dalit political discourses, arguing for their recognition as producers of knowledge and theory. Drawing on both historical and contemporary sources, it traces the evolution of dalit feminist thought, engaging critically with foundational scholars such as Gopal Guru, Sharmila Rege and Shailaja Paik. Central to this intervention is the oral testimony of Bimla, a second-generation Valmiki Partition migrant and sanitation worker in Delhi, whose life narrative provides a grounded account of caste, labour and migration. Through Bimla’s voice and those of contemporary dalit women writers such as Baby Kamble, Baby Halder, Yashica Dutt and Priyanca Singh, the article explores how dalit women assert intellectual agency across autobiographical, testimonial and digital platforms. It critiques the limitations of Savarna feminist engagements with caste, the tokenistic application of intersectionality and the continued dominance of upper-caste narratives in academic and public discourse. Ultimately, the article calls for a transformative dalit feminist framework rooted in lived experience, oral history and digital resistance that reclaims voice, asserts dignity and reconfigures the politics of knowledge production in postcolonial India.
Although women’s empowerment was not the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act’s (MGNREGA) primary purpose, it did include provisions such as equal wage rights for men and women and crèche facilities to encourage women’s involvement, correct some gendered inequalities in the labour market and raise their share of benefits. Similarly, the Act’s demand-driven strategy encourages the lowest-caste unskilled labour, women and most marginalised rural and agricultural workers to participate in large numbers. Women’s empowerment is central to human development. Empowerment of women could only be achieved if their economic and social statuses were improved. This study analyses the socio-economic empowerment effects through the MGNREGA scheme on rural women of Haryana. Using the field survey study, we found that women earned a livelihood through paid employment under MGNREGA and contributed their income as the largest share of household income. They gained income-consumption effects along with raising their decision-making power, freedom of mobility and bargaining power after joining the scheme. Despite its positive impact, the success of the programme faces several implementation challenges, including delays in wage payments, delayed work allocation, administrative negligence and inadequate worksite facilities. Furthermore, key provisions such as unemployment allowance and accident compensation are often not effectively implemented. Addressing these issues and strengthening the involvement of self-help groups and labour unions could enhance the transformative impact of MGNREGA on women’s empowerment.
In countries like India, during the post-colonial period, rapid urbanisation has gone hand in hand with skyrocketing urban poverty. This has resulted in an increase in the number of people engaged in the informal sector to earn a living. Among them, one of the most conspicuous are the street vendors whose survival depends on access to public places such as parks, pavements and squares. The nature of this access is interceded by the presence and intervention of the state, mediated through the global shifts in the ‘development discourse’. Urban studies concerning the street vendors in India are a relatively new theme, and works focused specifically on Delhi are even scantier. This research aims to examine the status and experiences of street vendors from a statistical perspective, particularly focusing on the urban governance in the city of Delhi. The article relies primarily on (apart from the policy and legislation documents) a reading of the Delhi Master Plans 1962, 2001, 2021 and judgments from the Supreme Court of India and the Delhi High Court, which shed light on the issues of status of the vendors’ rights, legality and feature interpretations of schemes/acts pertaining to them. In 1957, the Municipal Council of Delhi and the Delhi Development Authority were constituted via acts that drew heavily from their colonial predecessors. In 2014, the Street Vendors Act was passed, and amendments were made in 2017. The article argues that the content of Master Plans for spatial growth and reconfiguration of the city has echoed the discussions happening on the international platforms about recognising urban informality as well as the policy shifts in the country, but has failed to go beyond that, carrying only token mentions of the trade. As far as the legal cases are concerned, it is found that the court contradicts itself by acknowledging a ‘street vendor’s’ right to ‘vend’ but not their right to the ‘street’.
This article critically reviews the literature on the absence of political activism by dalit women student activists in the context of higher education. The article aims to establish that dalit women activists have been marginalised in student organisations that are present in higher education from progressive left, feminist, as well as anti-caste organisations. The existing review of literature on dalit women has progressed to understanding and analysing educational experiences and social exclusion. However, dalit women are portrayed as victims in the existing scholarship because they are studied from a deficit lens. The scholarly engagement has been unsuccessful in bringing out the active and agentic voices of dalit women. Therefore, in this article, I discuss the trajectories of (a) student activism in India, (b) the emergence and political assertion of anti-caste activism in higher education spaces and (c) the erasure of dalit women student activism in higher education, contrasting it with the above two arguments. The article further explores how dalit women’s activism stems from their everyday lives, as illustrated by Anandhi and Kapadia (2017) , ‘we are not in formal politics, but I think politics for us is the way we live our everyday lives’.
The National Fellowship for Scheduled Castes (NFSC) is a fellowship scheme for Dalit scholars pursuing doctoral research in Indian higher education, referred to as NFSC scholars. This study investigates the experiences of NFSC scholars using qualitative methods, including interviews, narrative analysis and participant observation. Twenty NFSC scholars participated in this research. Using theories of humiliation, symbolic violence, microaggressions and discrimination, the interviews were analysed thematically. The findings identify four main challenges: systemic inequalities, institutional barriers, peer humiliation and supervisory discrimination, manifested through fellowship delays, complex procedures and discriminatory behaviour. Limited social capital and intra-group dynamics exacerbate feelings of alienation and psychological trauma, impacting scholarly engagement and emotional well-being. The researcher’s experience as an NFSC scholar offers an insider perspective, enriching the analysis. By amplifying marginalised voices, the study concludes that fellowships alone cannot ensure true inclusion and equity; structural reforms are essential to dismantle caste hierarchies and foster academic inclusivity in India.
Caste, often understood as a social category, has economic implications in the labour market and stands for the division of labourers, as per Mandal (2013) . Caste in India has thereby determined the position that one has in the social hierarchy, and at the same time the labour that one can be considered suitable for. Similarly, the gender-based strict separation of spheres between the public realm and the private realm has consistently determined the nature of work women are considered apt and suitable for. The intersection of these two identities of caste and gender and the experiences therein form a predominant part of the discourse around dalit women. The site for production of these discourses and reproduction of knowledge systems can be aptly traced to that of the workplace in which dalit women work, as their labour constitutes an important part of what they think about themselves, how they are perceived within the society and the larger debate on social exclusion. This article aims to comprehend the layered and multi-dimensional experiences of social exclusion and the narratives of the dalit women employed in the organised sector, specifically the education sector of the Chandigarh region.
Over the last three decades, the history of women development has been recorded with an increased active hue of humanitarian and women’s rights context. The crisis calls for a response and collective action to propose an efficient framework to protect affected women from violations of their rights. Under the shield of humanitarian approach, right to equality and human rights law, the issue at hand demanded a global humanitarian response plan that employs strong advocacy and powerful activism to protect and ensure that the victims overcome social discrimination through preventing, responding and securing accountability for violation of fundamental rights. This article brings forth some of the international legal frameworks and the international status of women contributing to the economy by enhancing workforce participation. Additionally, the article focuses on identifying some of the historically challenging barriers that prevent women from participating in the fast-growing industrial sectors through sustainable workforce participation. This initiative involves considerable factors that enable effective collaboration in prevention, response and advocacy involving combined expertise to record the vulnerabilities that continue to considerably impact violations. Though there are considerable inhibits in addressing the most gender-sensitive issue, long-standing policy and practice implementation can necessitate risk aversion for the humanitarian crisis.
In this article, I first narrate the key features of democracy and the three types of democracy as conceptualised by Dr Ambedkar: political, social and economic. These three types of democracy depend upon each other, and if one is damaged, the rest cannot function properly. Equality and fraternity are two key themes that inform his concepts of social and economic democracies. In the next section of the article, I move on to discuss minority rights in British India and how they viewed the political representation of religious minorities. It was in this context that Dr Ambedkar started arguing that dalits should also receive the same safeguards as were being given to all other religious minorities. He argued that dalits are also a minority as they face substantial discrimination from the Hindu society. While doing this, Dr Ambedkar redefined the concept of minority and brought to the fore the importance of discrimination. To check this, he proposed effective political representation of dalits and all other minorities. He was against nominal representation, as was done via the Poona Pact in 1932. Only leaders from the discriminated groups can represent their community genuinely. He proposed various ingenious methods so that minorities are not overtaken by a majority, such as concepts of communal majority, political majority, real representation and nominal representation. All these together tell us that he was very clear on how to check a democracy falling into the trap of majoritarianism. My article posits that the safeguards for minorities as proposed by B. R. Ambedkar remain relevant till today.
Various sociological and anthropological accounts have divided Muslim castes into three distinct categories: Ashraf , Ajlaf and Arzal . Two of these three categories are assessed based on whether such castes are associated with any occupations and whether they have been included in the other backward class (OBC) category. These two grounds have raised many questions about the classification of Muslim society. Sociologists believe that three categories are not enough to see a clear picture of the dynamics of the Muslim caste structure. The Kulhaiya Biradari , one of the most significant populace in Seemanchal in Bihar, with which this article deals, is a community grappling with similar issues. Kulhaiya , a non-occupational caste, claims to be a Sheikh but is also included in the OBC category. The main objective of this study is to find an answer to whether the categorisation of caste among Muslims is sufficient and appropriate.
Education is crucial for crossing the socio-economic ladder as higher education provides opportunities to acquire skills and knowledge, which broadens the scope and opportunities to access resources and equal space in society. The article aims to assess the educational status and trends of scheduled caste (SCs)/scheduled tribes (STs) in higher education, the major challenges faced in accessing higher education and the government initiative for the development of higher education for SC/ST. A majority of SC/ST have enrolled in undergraduate courses, beyond which the enrolment of SC/ST is unsatisfactory. The arts stream is the most preferred course among SC/ST; many are enrolled in public universities. The presence of SC/ST students and teachers in central universities is less than allocated, impacting the quality of education imparted to students. Improving the state of higher education for SC/ST is essential. Their representation in higher education is most urgent for speedy socio-economic development and an inclusive and equitable society.
This article decries the normative projection of education as a means of only securing livelihood for the poor. Applying Honneth’s idea on the struggle for recognition, it develops an understanding of whether and in what way education contributes to the intersubjective recognition of the abilities and achievements of the poor. The premise is that the notion of the self is constitutive of the interaction with others. Drawing upon interviews with the poor and ethnographic fieldnotes, it shows that the poor associate education with intersubjective recognition, that is, with a sense of being recognised, of being counted as an asset in society. It establishes that education inspires self-respect as also the potential and boldness to relate oneself as an equal participant in the exchange of opinions and discussions regarding public affairs.
The Human Development Index (HDI) provided at the national level is mostly useful for international comparisons. From the policy angle, HDI can suggest different policy options if they are disaggregated at sub-national and subgroup levels, which in turn helps policymakers set sub-national and subgroup development priorities. Thus, the current research addresses whether achievement in human development differs across socio-religious groups, whether there is a variation in human development at the sub-national level, to what extent sub-national HDI differ across socio-religious groups, and whether there is a link between development and divergence in human development performance across socio-religious groups. Data for the current study are drawn from the National Sample Survey’s (NSS) Multiple Indicator Survey (MIS [2020–2021]) and the National Family Health Survey-5 (2019–2021) (NFHS-5). The total number of households used for this study is 76,409 from MIS and 6.37 lakh from NFHS-5. Using the HDI method, this study first estimates the index separately for education, health, living standard and livelihood opportunities among socio-religious groups, followed by the overall HDI. The results show that in all four indices, scheduled tribe (ST), schedule caste (SC) and Muslim community’s performance are low compared to all other socio-religious categories. Further, the overall HDI result confirms that these communities exhibit notably poor HDI scores. In most cases, except Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Delhi states, the rest of the states expose the poor conditions of HDI among these communities. Therefore, efforts should be made to replicate successful models observed in states like Kerala and Delhi, where certain socio-religious groups have shown higher HDI scores, indicating positive outcomes from existing policies or interventions.
This article attempts to problematise the student activism on university campuses, which has been a prominent political space for the youth. Student movements through their respective organisations have induced multiple levels of political consciousness among students during their stay. By critically looking at student activism on campus, one could not overlook the fact that student activism on campus has long been a masculine domain with a little or almost negligible presence of women student leaders in university politics. Against such lopsided gender realities, this article proposed to examine the nature and praxis of student political organisations with the help of gender perspectives. This article argues that despite being divided on lines of political ideology, these student organisations are, at one level, united by gender stereotypes that are creating permanent political barriers for women student leaders on campus. In doing so, it focuses on unexplored and undocumented internal politics of the student organisations that seem to have established invisible gender structures leading to under-representation and discrimination of women participants in student politics and activism. Analytical concepts of this article have been developed based on ethnographic data collected from women students at a central university located in South India.
In an effort to develop the disadvantaged dalit population, the Bihar Government introduced a category called ‘Mahadalit’. Under the rubric of this nomenclature, many schemes have been introduced to uplift the Mahadalits, including the Musahars, often described as ‘dalit among dalits’. One such scheme is the Vikas Mitras scheme, which aims to appoint people from the Mahadalit population to the lowest position in the bureaucracy, envisioning them to emerge as ‘change agents’. In this scheme, fifty per cent of the positions are reserved for the Mahadalit women. The article presents an ethnographic study of the experiences of Musahar women navigating through the bureaucracy as Vikas Mitras while engaging with their intersectional identities related to caste, class and gender. The reflexive engagement with the scheme’s intent and reality on the field raises critical questions about the broader categories of development, empowerment, intersectionality and depoliticisation.
