New Delhi - Man-made societal structures are too narrow to hold people in. Many are breaking free, making the world realize that no one will ever go unheard. One such trailblazer is Beena Pallical, who recently became the first Dalit woman to speak at the United Nations General Assembly. An opportunity was presented to The Mooknayak to talk to the Dalit Activist about her childhood, work, and views on minorities.

Beena Pallical spoke at the second Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Summit, which took place in New York. The summit was held on 18th September to evaluate the execution of the 17 SDGs for the 2030 Agenda. Speaking in front of global leaders, the activist has been reported as saying, “I am a person belonging to the Dalit community, representing the stakeholder group on communities discriminated in work and dissent, including Dalits, Haratin, Roma, Killambola, and other people who are socially and economically excluded and discriminated against intergenerationally. We number around 270 million across all continents together with indigenous people, Afro-descendant people, people with disabilities, and LGBTQIA+. Within these marginalized communities, we are the ones who are actually the ‘leave no one behind’ that the SDGs are currently focusing on.” ‘Leave No One Behind’ is a pledge taken by the UN members for the 2030 Agenda.

During a telephonic conversation with The Mooknayak, Pallical mentioned that she has spoken at the UN many times before, but this was the first time she addressed members at the General Assembly. She thanked the Global Forum of Community Discrimination and Work on Descent for the opportunity, which is a global forum trying to bring all the discriminated groups together on one platform at the UN. On stage, she primarily talked about financing and demanded an ‘inclusive budget’. The activist urged the members to think of representatives from different groups when discussing the source of funding for the SDGs.

Beena Pallical hails from Kerala, but she grew up in Pune with her family. She is a Dalit Christian, a fact that was hidden from her during her childhood to keep her safe from the casteism prevalent in society. So, she only grew up with the identity of being from the Christian community. Even then, there was a lot of conversation around caste in her household without mentioning the term. “I remember many hushed discussions about ‘the others’ taking place in my house,” she said. Later on, she started posing difficult questions about their caste to her parents. When she came to know the truth about her identity, only then was she able to piece together the fragments of her childhood conversations and realize that ‘the others’ meant the dominant caste, whose subjugation led to their family's conversion.

Pallical opened up about her upbringing and the importance of education in her life. “For my parents, knowledge was of utmost importance. My father once mentioned that if my sibling and I wanted to study further, he would do anything to ensure we had the finances to follow our dreams.” Pallical went to a Christian missionary school, which provided her with the opportunity to experience people from diverse backgrounds. She exclaimed, “The school provided me with a much-needed sense of diversity!”

She has a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s in business administration. After working in the corporate field for about ten years, she realized her heart was telling her that she was meant to do something more. And soon enough, she started working on human rights. In 2010, Beena joined the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights and later became its General Secretary. NCDHR was the first organization to bring international attention to Dalit Rights. The activist also leads the Asia Dalit Rights Forum, which is also working on the same issues.

The multiple intersectional identities of being a woman, Dalit, and a Christian intermingled and posed certain complications in her life. Beena has often found herself at the receiving end of stereotypical questions based on prejudices about how a Dalit person should look and act. “People have asked me how Dalits can know and speak English if they are poor? This made me question my identity and wonder if I was supposed to look and talk a certain way for me to claim my name.”

Time and again, she had to prove herself and make people realize that there are educated Dalits who can speak more than one language. “Dalits come in all forms of representation,” she mentioned. “There are Dalits who are not Hindu, not poor, and can read and write in English. Some people from the community might not have had the privilege of going to a school like I did, but that does not diminish my experiences. At the end of the day, there were boundaries that every community member was breaking. For me, it was about reclaiming my name.”

Beena Pallical also touched upon the subject of reservation. Talking about the various types of communities, Pallical said, “Discrimination is faced by Dalits everywhere. There are stories of people from the community in positions of power yet facing casteism. There is no logic behind the idea that only Dalits who are Hindus can face discrimination. Religion is a personal choice, but being Dalit is not. Every Dalit should be provided reservation. We, as a community, should accept this diversity. It does not matter what religion you are following. If you are Dalit, affirmative action should be taken for you.”

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