“Ours is a battle not for wealth, nor for power; ours is a battle for freedom, for reclamation of human personality.”
— Dr B.R. Ambedkar
The Dalit yearning and fight, as Dr Ambedkar said, has always been for human dignity more than anything else. And one of the ways to achieve it, the oppressed communities believe, is education. That’s how my journey towards becoming a lawyer begins. We are three daughters. My parents, who themselves have witnessed and experienced a life that’s denied self-respect, believed in education as the only tool to craft and build a dignified, meaningful life. Though they could not afford more than school education, they decided to make us professionals. Since medicine is considered the most respected profession and there had been no doctor in our lineage, they wanted my eldest sister to become one. Similarly, they wanted my elder sister to become an engineer—again, it symbolised respect and economic mobility. I was the last one. Since my sisters have already...
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