#marginalised communities

[unwelcome-ozian]

[turquoisewaves07]

conservation charities will be like "we're wild about inclusion!" but all their employees are white and to have a chance at getting a job you have to volunteer for years and have multiple degrees

[majaurukalo]

I can’t stress enough how important it is the mental and emotional support from people who share our space for us to thrive, reach personal success and all the things we desire.

Remarks such as “if you believe in something keep going even if everybody is against you” or “you are not doing it for external recognition” or even “you have nothing to prove to other people but just to yourself” are romantic and bold until they are not, until they start to hinder our growth and achievements.

Because human beings do not exist in isolation. We do not and cannot make everything on our own. Emotional and mental support from friends, family, parents, partners, teachers, etc. are as crucial as money, time, energy, education, societal background…

This becomes even more evident when we come from that portion of society that rarely sees itself depicted or portrayed in all spaces humans created for humans to consume, enjoy, use, develop, entertain, whatever.

I can talk from a disabled and chronically ill woman’s point of view because that’s what I am, but it can be applied to a lot of situations.

We need supporters, we need people to believe in us, encourage us, uplift us.

A lot of other more practical things can be found, money, time, energy. We can find ways to get those. There are many outlets nowadays.

Emotional and mental support have a huge impact on the mindset and the mindset is the first key to reveal our full potential. Lacking those, we could really be hindered and held back from seeing opportunities (or even making opportunities) and chase our aspirations.

It’s so sad when even our “allies”, or those that should be our allies, work against us. It’s even sadder when they think they are doing it for our own good, instead of helping us find a way.

[indizombie]

The fact of the matter is - the burden of proof of 'merit' doesn't rest on the shoulder of students and young people from marginalised communities. The onus is on the schools, institutions and organisations to prove, with evidence, that they are not dens of savarna monopoly over taxpayers' money. The onus also squarely rests on the shoulders of the savarnas to prove that their credibility and locus standi rests on moral tools of fairness, justice and equality and not on the well ingrained laws of caste privilege as ordained by Manu.

Sylvia Karpagam and Sridhar Gowda, ‘Merit of ‘Vision’ groups and ‘Knowledge’ commissions in Karnataka’, Round Table India

[indizombie]

In eastern Jharkhand state, children's rights activist Baidnath Kumar has been frantically sharing information on WhatsApp and fielding appeals for help from local residents, but as the crisis deepens he said being online could prove decisive. "Access to anything - beds, oxygen, medicines, doctors - is becoming more and more difficult," Kumar said. "One needs to know someone or appeal on social media for a quick response. But how many people can do that? It doesn't work." Members of poor, marginalised communities are most at risk of missing out on information and support circulated via social media. Mona Baghmare, 21, a member of the Gond tribal group, launched a support network for indigenous women living in settlements in the central city of Bhopal as coronavirus cases spiked this month. "Most of these women exist in a world outside Twitter and social media, which have become lifelines for many in need now," Baghmare said. "While we're also fundraising on Twitter with the help of friends who have accounts, the ground support is only through meetings, passing on information and phone calls. It's a slower process, but it's the only one we have."

'India's Covid-19 meltdown exposes new front in digital divide', Deccan Herald

[indizombie]

We were lucky, we had access to good lawyers and our case had media attention. But most prisoners are from marginalised sections, many of them have little education and no access to lawyers. And officials have absolute power over their lives and they don't treat them as human beings.

Natasha Narwal

[indizombie]

It is indeed surprising that the so called intelligentsia or cream of knowledge that claims to reside within the hallowed doors of institutions such as IIM cannot see the innate flaw in the segregation of the 'non-deserving' from the 'deserving'. The sad truth of the matter is that the 'deserving' will always be from one narrow caste group, and the 'non deserving' from another caste group that has traditionally and historically been ascribed this label, irrespective and in spite of anything other than the 'fatal accident' of their birth. Unless people from marginalised communities are pro-actively brought into and genuinely supported in these spaces, the spaces will automatically be 'reserved' ONLY for the so called upper caste elite.

Sylvia Karpagam and Sridhar Gowda, ‘Merit of ‘Vision’ groups and ‘Knowledge’ commissions in Karnataka’, Round Table India

[indizombie]

In the case of many children from marginalised communities, while their families struggle with their day to day existence, unable (not unwilling) to provide their children's needs, schools become places of psychological violence. Children are not treated as equals. For those of us who have faced sibling rivalry or professional rivalry from people who often do it unknowingly, it shouldn't be hard to understand the magnitude of psychological and social violence that is inflicted on children when this inequality is deliberately propagated. Children being made to sit separately, children's heads' being shaved or other markers being placed on the child to separate them as 'them', children not being allowed to eat with others, children who eat non-vegetarian, particularly beef, being told that they are therefore polluted and inferior. Can an educated, logical, rational, thinking savarna not understand how demoralising and damaging these practices are? These same practices are carried on to colleges and universities.

Sylvia Karpagam and Sridhar Gowda, ‘Merit of ‘Vision’ groups and ‘Knowledge’ commissions in Karnataka’, Round Table India