Dalit and Tribal Women as Ecological Victims

The essay examines the ecological marginalization of Dalit and tribal women in India, especially by analysing the three points of intersection, namely, caste, patriarchy, and gender. Though it starts with a global outlook on the African water crisis, it substantiates the argument with Indian realities of water inequality and resource depletion. While showing caste as the root cause of water discrimination in the country, it exposes the abetting roles of patriarchy and gender in keeping the Dalit and tribal women at the lowest position in the Indian social fabric. Environmental casteism and exclusion from decision-making processes add to the invisibility of the marginalized women from helpful discourses and perpetuate their marginalization further with no respite. Employing the example of the Samaritan woman from John 4 as an ecological victim on par with Dalit and tribal women, the article calls for recognitional justice to advance robust policies enhanced by a radical commitment to transformative praxis to not only improve the lot of the marginalized women but also to make them agents of their own liberation.