Human Rights as Practice: Dalit Women Securing Livelihood Entitlements in South India

Based on rich ethnographic fieldwork across three villages in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Human Rights as Practice captures and examines the processes and struggles Dalit women engage in to secure or protect livelihood entitlements such as housing, land, and work. By focusing on the power dynamics between state and non-state actors and these women, the author brings to the fore their strife and agency while negotiating social exclusion.

Jayshree P. Mangubhai emphasizes the need to factor issues of culture, status, identity, and unequal power relations into livelihood entitlement struggles. Straddling a broad canvas of socio-economic and civil-political rights, this book highlights the importance of linking human rights and the praxis of grassroots social movements.