"People who come to collect garbage at homes are almost always Dalits, those who do manual scavenging 99 per cent times they are Dalits, nobody from upper caste seeks quota in these jobs. "Often when I returned from school, my mother would enquire if someone asked me about my caste and if someone did I am supposed to say 'Brahmin' because she was worried that if I revealed I was from the 'bhangi' caste, I would face discrimination even by my teachers and friends in Ajmer and miss out on opportunities," she said reminiscing the Rajasthan of early 1990s.Īsked if the "gap" in "discrimination" shrinks in urban spaces where money and services appear more dominant instead of caste, she said in villages caste is more visible, in cities it is invisible but it is equally present in both areas. Dutt, 33, recalled incidents from her childhood about discrimination that had left her "scarred" and became the reason for choosing to hide her caste even when working with a leading daily in New Delhi.
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