Dalit Girl’s Perception Towards Discrimination

Abstract

The study deals with Dalit women’s perception regarding discrimination, especially, in Hindu society. The broad objective of the study was to find out the perception of Dalit girls that affect their participation in education. The overarching research question of this study was, “How has discriminatory practices influenced Dalit girls’ access to education? I, as a researcher, reviewed the literature related to Women under Hinduism, Cultural perspective and Educational perspective. I used hermeneutics for the theoretical construct of this research. I used case study as a research strategy for generating information and analyzed it using the philosophy of Husserl, Heidegger, and Gadamer. I used questionnaires, in-depth open- ended interviews and direct observation under this method. In order to guide myself I also developed schematic chart to dig out information for this study. I found the forces that contributed to make up Dalit women’s perception like culture, religion, social values and gender construct. I also interpreted the forces by using hermeneutic theory of Husserl, Heidegger and Gadamer. I also explained about the relationship between perception and education of Dalit girl’s with hermeneutics interpretation. I found the history and structure of society as the cause of their hindrance to education. I presented the findings under different categories like findings generated from the literature, field, personal reflection, and Hermeneutical inquiry. In doing so, I tried to capture the forces that shaped and reshaped Dalit girls’ perception towards discrimination in school. Hermeneutics taught me that all meaning is context- dependent and therefore unstable. It also stated that culture could be created and recreated; implying that the culture, which is against Dalit women, could also be changed. I realized that Dalit girls’ perception towards education could be changed by introducing inclusive approach to teaching, and reorienting culturally socialized mindset. Lastly, I have concluded my thesis by saying that the discrimination started from the mind of people and spread to home school and community so the treatment should be started from the peoples’ mind.