“I am conscious of the fact that if women are conscientised, the untouchable community will progress. I believe women should organise this and will play a major role in ending the social evils. The progress of the Dalit community should be measured in terms of the progress by its womenfolk.” — Dr B R Ambedkar, address to the Dalit Mahila Federation, 1942.

Progress does not always announce itself through policies or headlines. Sometimes, it looks like a Dalit woman standing her ground in a panchayat meeting, or leading a male-dominated organisation, or speaking up when her community is pushed to the margins.

These everyday acts of leadership are not isolated. They are part of a larger, often overlooked pattern in which grassroots leaders are the first to act in times of crisis, yet the last to be recognised. And when those leaders are Dalit women, that invisibility deepens. Still, they continue to build impact, step by step, navigating systems that were never built with them in mind.

This Dalit History Month, we are amplifying the voices of women who have long been told they don’t belong at the table.

Manohari Doss | Institute for Self Management | Tamil Nadu

The first girl in her village to get an education, Manohari Doss co-founded the ‘Institute for Self Management (ISM)’ in 1982 with her late husband, Edward Doss. Over four decades, ISM, along with the Women Development Resource Centre and the Tamil Nadu Labour Union, has worked to advance the rights and livelihoods of Dalit and hill tribal communities across the state.

One of the groundbreaking achievements of Manohari Doss has been her pivotal role in establishing the Federation for Dalit Women Empowerment, a formal consortium of 65 Dalit women-led grassroots NGOs across 20 districts of Tamil Nadu.

With a vision to impact 100 organisations across the state, this autonomous federation focuses on building leadership, strengthening solidarity and addressing the multiple layers of caste, class and gender-based discrimination that women from the Dalit community face.

Its objectives include ensuring access to quality higher education for young girls, creating dignified livelihood opportunities, and enabling women leaders to occupy positions of authority.

This federation, established in the year 2000 and formally registered in........

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