Mumbai/Nanded- Some people fight their circumstances to change only their own destiny. Others set out to change the destiny of an entire community. Deepali Salve, who rose from the Anand Nagar slum in Chembur, belongs to the second kind.

The daughter of an auto-rickshaw driver is today pursuing a PhD at the University of Mumbai. She is the Maharashtra General Secretary of the All India Independent Scheduled Castes Association (AIISCA) and a Director of the Savitribai Phule Resource Centre (SRC). She also led the protests in the IIT-Bombay student Sahil Wakode's death case.

Rahul Sonpimple, Founder of All India Independent Scheduled Castes Association, who has worked alongside her in this struggle, tells her story.

“I first met Deepali in Nanded in 2022,” Sonpimple recalls. “She had travelled all the way from Mumbai, alone, just to listen to our Ambedkarite speakers. When I asked about her journey, she replied very simply, ‘Yes, Dada. I came here to listen to all our Ambedkarite speakers.’”

According to Sonpimple, he did not know then that the meeting would become the beginning of a shared journey of struggle, organization and social change.

The conversation turned to the condition of Dalits and the atrocities committed against them. Deepali’s pain went far beyond her personal experience. “Dada, when I see the condition of our people and the atrocities committed against them, I feel that we are still living under Peshwa rule,” she said.

Sonpimple says those words struck him deeply. “It was the anguish of a young Dalit woman who had witnessed inequality closely and understood that silence could never be the answer to oppression.”

That same day, the two shared a resolve: to organize, to resist, and to give their people a stronger collective voice. From that conviction, AIISCA was born. Its aim is to organize communities, assert their rights and carry forward the unfinished mission of Babasaheb Dr. B. R. Ambedkar.

Savitribai Phule Resource Centre: Making Education a Right

But the team soon realized that political awareness and social mobilization alone were not enough. Children needed education. Girls needed opportunities. The most marginalized students needed guidance, resources, and someone to tell them their dreams were possible. That need led to the creation of the Savitribai Phule Resource Centre (SRC).

SRC is an autonomous socio-educational centre established by AIISCA. It works for the upliftment of students and youth from deprived and marginalized SC, ST and OBC communities. The centres offer guidance and support for higher education, competitive examinations such as CUET, and career counselling. Inspired by the ideas of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar and Savitribai Phule, the initiative works on the mission of making education not a privilege but a right for everyone.

Alongside education, the centres also work to build grassroots leadership, run reading circles, and promote anti-caste consciousness and the idea of equality. Centres and study groups are active in Nagpur, Mumbai, Pune, Bihar and other regions. Today SRC has more than 15 centres, and every year more than 100 students move towards higher education in some of the country’s premier institutions with their help.

“Behind every student who succeeds is a family that dares to dream, a young person who refuses to surrender, and a movement that believes no child should be denied an education because of caste, class, or circumstances,” Sonpimple says.

A Journey That Began in a Chembur Slum

Deepali’s own life is a story of courage and sacrifice. She comes from Anand Nagar, a Dalit-dominated slum in Chembur, Mumbai. In such neighbourhoods, poverty restricts opportunities, girls often struggle to continue their education, and early marriage can end their dreams before they have a chance to take flight.

Her father drives an auto-rickshaw. Her mother works as a sanitation worker and is associated with Stree Mukti Sanghatana. The family did not have great financial resources, but they had a firm determination to educate their children. That sacrifice gave the children the chance to imagine a different future.

Deepali’s schooling began at a government school in Jalna. She then went on to Dr. B. R. Ambedkar High School and Acharya College in Chembur. Poverty could have blocked her path, social stigma could have broken her confidence, and the barriers of caste and gender could have forced her to give up her aspirations. But she did not let her circumstances decide her destiny.

Deepali is at the forefront of the protests in the Sahil Wakode case. The injustice she had watched around her for years is the injustice she was again seen standing against, at the very front.

Today Deepali is a PhD scholar at the University of Mumbai, the Maharashtra General Secretary of AIISCA and a Director of the Savitribai Phule Resource Centre. She is among the rare women from her neighbourhood to have made the journey to a doctorate.