Dalit women face special discrimination both from outside and from inside their communities. From the outside, Dalit women as women are threatened by rape as part of collective violence by the higher castes. There are different views about Dalit women's position inside their own society, compared to women in other castes. Dalit women are freer in the sense that they are not confined within the household, they have to go out and work, they have more open and equal relationships with men as compared to upper caste women. However, the position of women within Dalit communities can hardly be said to be equal to that of men.
Men are overwhelmingly dominant in the community and the family.
Women have to bear the burden of all household work, child-rearing and so on besides working outside as wage labourers. She and other Dalit women confronted a land-owner demanding equal pay as men. We had been planting paddy seedlings and the farmers were in danger of losing the whole crop if the job wasn't completed at once. Later the same day we got our increase. Addressing the appalling position of Dalit women presents various problems.