Dalit Women and Water: Availability, Access and Discrimination in South Asian Context

Water is a deeply contentious issue, intersecting in many ways with identities of caste and gender status in South Asian countries, creating complex cultural meanings and social hierarchies. In that way the word Dalit means "suppressed" or "broken" and represents exploited groups traditionally associated with women in South Asian countries such as India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. The present study aims to identify how access to water use, availability and related experiences is shaped by their caste and gender identity hierarchy. Based on qualitative research methodology, this study has been carried out using primary and secondary data collection methods. Dalit women based case study and direct observation techniques have been used as primary data collection tools. 20 case studies have been taken from two different parts of Jaffna namely Alaveddy and Gurunagar. A variety of rich scholarly literature has been reviewed and analyzed as secondary data collection tools. The findings of the study found that water has been a traditional medium of marginalization of Dalits in overt and subtle ways. Dalits have been found to be denied rights and access to water by upper castes asserting their rights over water bodies, including wells, tanks and pipes, in Gurunagar and Alaveddy areas. Findings based on secondary data revealed the construction of 'caste water' texts by upper castes in cultural and religious domains, the doubling down of Dalit narratives and water knowledge explained that the high level of violence and discrimination historically experienced during water harvesting in South Asian countries such as Sri Lanka, India, and Nepal. Thus, comparatively while incidents of violence related to access and availability of water have decreased in Jaffna's Dalit communities in comparison, discrimination and exclusion around water bodies has continued. On the other hand, in other South Asian countries like India and Nepal, incidents of violence near water bodies are increasing day by day. Thus, water access discrimination continues to be determined by caste and water access discriminatory practices adopted by upper castes reinforce the theory that Dalit women are untouchable.