This book offers a detailed narrative of Dalit migrants' everyday experience in urban areas with regard to the availability and accessibility of welfare services and state institutions. It discusses caste, specifically the identity of integration for Dalit migrants and the social work profession to integrate a marginalized community. Further, the book also highlights social, political, cultural, and economic changes among Dalit migrants in cities.
The book traces the trajectory of Dalit migrants and captures their mobility from rural to urban areas, which is a complex economic and social phenomenon. In consideration of this complexity, the author explores the process of migration in its finer details through a focus on lived experiences of Dalit migrants in cities. Dalits often migrate to cities in search of better employment and livelihood opportunities because their occupations are invariably associated with their caste in villages. This book investigates the role of caste-based identity in Dalit migrants’ emancipation and integration in cities. In addition, the book examines the role of caste in the exclusion of Dalit migrants in cities and explains the dynamic nature of the 'state' and Dalit migrants' assertion.
Among the topics covered in the book's seven chapters:
- Mumbai/Bombay: Migration, Caste, and Dalits
- Caste and Migration: The City—A Site for ‘Inclusion’ and Emancipation
- Entitlement, Deprivation, and Basic Services: Everyday Experience of Dalit Migrants with the State
Dalit Migrants: Assertion, Emancipation, and Social Change is intended for students, academicians, and researchers in social work, migration studies, labour studies, development studies, population science, and economics. Developmental professionals also will be keen to read the book.
