Labouring Against Invisibility: Reflecting Ambedkar's Social Justice Framework

Abstract: This paper aims to discuss and expand Ambedkar’s social justice framework by examining invisible social labour of students from marginalised communities in higher education institutions. Higher education serves as a microcosm of a hierarchical society, reflecting values and ideas that intrinsically are discriminatory, oppressive and unjust. As former spaces for exclusive elites, these institutions retain much of these characteristics despite adjustment and realignment with goals of equality, representation and inclusion. Ambedkar’s social justice framework provides insights into understanding invisible social labour of marginalised student’s where they are subject to overt and covert discrimination, caste-based violence, microaggressions, navigating an exclusive space etc. This also extends to academic labour and their identities become a burden they have to carry around. This paper examines this labour through a study of Ambedkar’s vision of education. The central argument is that the lack of recognition of marginalised student’s labour perpetuates and reinforces caste hierarchies within higher education spaces. The paper explores the avenues of institutional spaces that promotes empowerment, critical thinking and justice and suggests strengthening of practices and cultures that amplify diversity and inclusion.