Embracing My Dalit Identity

April 9, 2025

Born into this world as a Dalit girl
Happy and protected in a Christian Family
When I asked my parents what Dalit meant?
Its meaning made no sense to me.
Untouchability and discrimination
felt insane to me.

Until one day, I faced it myself.
When the upper caste, rich woman asked me to
enter through the backdoor of her
house and not through the main door,
It shattered me
When I was denied taking water from the common pipeline,
It terrified me
When the teacher at school asked me to sit separately from other Dalit girls,
It made me cry
When I was always given the last place in all the performances because of my darker
skin, I felt ostracized (Most of the Dalits have darker skin)
When Upper caste women hesitated to shake hands with me, and the dominant men
touched my body without my permission, it broke my confidence
I faced caste discrimination even inside the church and many places…..
But that was not the end,

My realization led me to conscientization and resurgence,
I started to show who I am to society with my inner strength and resilience with my
Dalit identity,

I felt proud as a Dalit girl when I got my Engineering degree as the first girl child in
my entire family
I felt proud as a Dalit girl when I helped my Dalit sisters to uplift them in education
and career

I felt proud as a Dalit woman when I recruited Upper-caste people for MNCs
I felt proud as a Dalit woman when I started my theological journey
Now, I am super proud to identify as a Dalit and realize God chose me to serve my
people, empowering me to stand against all kinds of power and oppression and
spread equality with love.

Dalit means, for me, not only broken and shattered
but also to break barriers and shatter casteist power.

Jenita Kiruba Immanuel
MDiv Graduate 2023, McCormick Theological Seminary
MA in Theology at LSTC.