Dalit activists share their stories of oppression

A panel of Dalit activists and a political leader shared their stories of oppression and stuggles at India Today Conclave 2019 session 'Why We Marched'.

Singer and Dalit activist Bant Singh, whose daughter was raped when she was in Class 10, shared his long fight for justice. He spoke about his daughter who gave him strength to survive and fight despite his limbs being amputated after he was attacked by upper caste people in his village.

Dalit activist and Magasaysay Award winner Bezwada Wilson, who was born in Karanataka's Kolar in a family of manual scavengers, said "In our country we have no concept of equality. Even today more than 1.6 lakh people clean human excreta by hand and they are an invisible lot."

Meanwhile, Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani, who was also present at the same session, said, "This is all one big circus and while we have technology to discover water on Mars, we have not found the technology to help manual scavengers."