Accessing Higher Education Forging Identities Narratives of Dalit Women from Siddharth College Mumbai

Abstract

With the constitutional provisions and affirmative action policy, there is social and economic advancement among the Dalits. Besides, higher education has become a significant tool of liberation that has helped them in challenging the historical oppression of the caste system, especially in the urban milieu. The establishment of Siddharth College of Arts, Science and Commerce was founded under the People s Education Society (1946) by Dr B. R. Ambedkar, aimed to provide higher education for students coming from all sections of society, with special provisions to Scheduled Castes students, in a cosmopolitan space. It was designed to promote intellectual, social and moral democracy. Dr Ambedkar s idea of Siddharth College as an Emancipatory Educational Project was an attempt to democratise and socialise higher education. It has largely remained unexplored as a research site. Therefore, the primary objective of the research is to capture the socio-historical trajectory of the college from 1946 to 2017 with the help of primary and secondary data. The study explores the experiences of educated Dalit women from 1969 to 2017 within the context of institutional history. By focusing on their narratives, it intends to shed light on how the socio-political and educational landscapes have influenced the experiences and lives of Dalit women over five decades.