“Outsiders Within the Academy”: Life Narratives of Dalit (SCs) Women in Higher Education Spaces

This study investigates the lived experiences of Dalit women students in public universities and colleges in Delhi by applying Patricia Hill Collins’ concept of the “outsider within” alongside an intersectional feminist framework. The research foregrounds how caste and gender simultaneously shape the everyday realities of these students as they navigate higher education spaces. Drawing on qualitative insights, the study reveals that discrimination manifests in layered forms. Within classrooms, Dalit women frequently encounter exclusionary teaching practices and both subtle and overt casteist attitudes from faculty members. Peer interactions are marked by stereotyping, social distancing, and microaggressions, which often isolate them from broader student networks. At the familial level, patriarchal expectations limit women’s autonomy, mobility, and aspirations, further intensifying the struggle to pursue higher education. Despite these challenges, participants also identified pathways of resilience and empowerment. Supportive mentors, affirmative action measures such as reservations and scholarships, peer solidarity, and engagement with Dalit and feminist writings emerged as critical resources that sustained their academic journeys. These mechanisms enabled students not only to persist but also to reframe higher education as a site of resistance, empowerment, and transformation. The study is based on data collected through 12 focus group discussions (FGDs) with women aged 22 to 35 years enrolled in various degree programs. Each group consisted of 5 to 14 participants, with diversity in age and academic stage considered to capture variations in experience. FGDs were conducted either on university campuses or at participant-chosen venues that ensured privacy and confidentiality. Beginning with broad, open-ended questions, the discussions gradually explored specific encounters with discrimination, including casteist and class-based remarks, thus eliciting both individual and collective narratives. By centering Dalit women’s voices as “outsiders within” the academy, the study underscores how structural inequalities are deeply embedded in institutions often described as meritocratic. At the same time, it highlights the strategies of resilience and self-assertion through which marginalized students carve spaces of belonging and agency. The findings contribute to the broader discourse on caste, gender, and education by stressing the urgency of building inclusive and socially just academic environments.