Fighting hunger and landlessness, these Dalit women now reap the fruits of their own labour

Shakila Kalaiselvan of Vellore had not experienced the security of the next meal, a strong family system, or the freedom of education. As a child, she started working with her mother in the fields shortly after her father abandoned them. However, after hours of labour, they never earned enough to have a satisfying meal and even had to sleep hungry on some days.

Even after Kalaisenvan’s marriage and three children, she continued agricultural labour, growing produce for consumers, but was never able to meet her or her children’s nutrition needs.

In 2016, her paths crossed with Burnard Fatima Natesan, a seasoned activist of Dalit and tribal rights. Over the last four decades, Natesan has been bringing justice, education and self-sustenance to these communities through her NGO, Society for Rural Education and Development (SRED). Their meeting opened up an opportunity for Kalaiselvan to take over unutilised pieces of government land and start farming on them for herself.

Studies by Oxfam show that 80% of farm work in India—sowing, winnowing, harvesting, and other labour-intensive, non-mechanised processes—is done by women. 

“Coming from extreme marginalisation, poverty and caste-based discrimination, none of these women can ever eat what they sow. Landlessness and debt mark their lives, generation after generation,” says Natesan. “So, we decided to help these women fight back by forming them into collectives which then claim illegally occupied and poramboke lands (which do not fall under revenue records) to do organic farming on them,” Natesan tells SocialStory.

Founded in 2016, the Pallur Dalit Women’s Collective enabled 40 women to meet district authorities to identify three hectares of such illegally occupied or unused common lands, and start farming on them. They were given initial resources such as seeds (which are usually taken over by seed companies and controlled by dominant caste land owners) and equipment. Today, the movement has grown to 80 women belonging to two collectives working on 15 farms in the villages of Vellore district. 

They plough these lands that are often overgrown with weeds and thorns, and level them to grow food grains, fruits and vegetables. 

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“This is something we do alongside our MNREGA work when we find time. And since we work as a collective, it gives us the courage to resist the abuse and opposition from dominant caste men in the village,” says Gomathi, one of the women in the collective. “We share the harvest equally. I am the first generation in my family to experience food security, and my children get nutritious, organically grown food,” she says.

Santhi, Programme Coordinator of SRED’s Tamil Nadu Dalit Women’s Movement, says their movement has inspired Dalit women labourers in Ranipet to start their own collectives. Santhi joined SRED almost four decades ago as a health worker and has since been an agent of change for Dalit women, training them for political participation in local governance, building capacities for them to demand land titles, and bringing justice to caste crimes. 

SRED has also established solar pumps and provided farming equipment to some of these collectives for organic farming. 

“Dalit and tribal women are born into socio-economic deficit and discrimination, and battle for identity all their lives. They are dehumanised by their husbands, the community and society at large, for their gender, caste and class. When you form them into a collective and give them a piece of land to farm on and eat what they sow, it catapults them to a position of power and representation,” says Santhi.

Marginalised and generationally oppressed women don’t access basic rights. The husbands of a few who come from small land-owning families often pledge these lands away for alcohol. This, along with the non-representation of landless agricultural labourers even in the census, makes land ownership all the more important for these communities. 

As part of her activism, Santhi has trained 30 women in the village of Maharajapuram in Virudhunagar district to achieve land titles and start farming. She has identified 1,350 acres of land that could be used by 850 marginalised women from 19 villages.

“Land distribution, reform and collective farming are powerful ways to resist and break out of caste and gender-based oppression,” says Natesan. “It is also a stepping stone to bring forth self-sustenance, leadership and political participation. And our movement is the engine to power these changes.”