Our Caste Equity Leaders
Our Founder
Thenmozhi Soundararajan
Thenmozhi Soundararajan is a Dalit American artist, community organizer, and founder / Executive Director of Equality Labs. As Equality Labs’ Executive Director, she works to dismantle systems of oppression—specifically caste apartheid, gender-based violence, Islamaphobia, and religious intolerance. Thenmozhi has mobilized thousands of South Asian Americans across faiths, castes, and generations towards not only ending violence against South Asian minority communities, but also to creating pathways for visionary futures rooted in collective care and safety for all marginalized communities. You can learn more about Thenmozhi’s work by visiting her website.
Our Partners
We are an interfaith, intercaste, multiracial coalition. Our coalition has support from the MeToo Movement, Amnesty International, Ambedkar Association of North America, Hindus for Caste Equity, Jakara Movement, South Asian Network, Sikh Coalition, the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, Alphabet Workers Union and many others working to advance the rapidly expanding international movement for caste equity.
Our Team
Equality Labs consists of a team of dedicated civil rights activists, caste equity organizers, technologists, and movement builders. We center the leadership of South Asian caste-oppressed, queer, and religious minority communities in an ongoing redefinition of South Asian identity across the world. Every day, we fight for the collective liberation of oppressed people everywhere. We mobilize international communities in order to build the world we envision.
![Happy #DalitHistoryMonth. This April, we are amplifying our "Dr Ambedkar 101" multimedia series created in collaboration with visual artist @artedkar. Ambedkar's declaration to “educate, agitate, and organize” continues to drive forward our contemporary struggle for Dalit liberation. 💙
---
Dr B R Ambedkar's formative years were filled with instances of casteism he faced as a child, and particularly of importance is what he faced as a student. Here are Babasaheb’s own recollections from his book "Waiting for a Visa"
"I knew that in school I could not sit in the midst of my classmates according to my rank [in class performance], but that I was to sit in a corner by myself. I knew that in the school I was to have a separate piece of gunny cloth for me to squat on in the classroom, and the servant employed to clean the school would not touch the gunny cloth used by me. I was required to carry the gunny cloth home in the evening, and bring it back the next day.
While in the school I knew that children of the touchable classes, when they felt thirsty, could go out to the water tap, open it, and quench their thirst. All that was necessary was the permission of the teacher. But my position was separate. I could not touch the tap; and unless it was opened for it by a touchable person, it was not possible for me to quench my thirst.
In my case the permission of the teacher was not enough. The presence of the school peon was necessary, for he was the only person whom the class teacher could use for such a purpose. If the peon was not available, I had to go without water."
Understanding these experiences is crucial not only because they shaped Babasaheb's work towards equitable access for all in educational institutions, but also because such casteism continues in classrooms across India today.
Segregating students on the basis of caste continues, either explicitly, or through established Brahmanical caste markers such as surnames, meat consumption, or even where one is expected to sit in a classroom. The popular stereotype of 'backbenchers' as unmeritorious, rowdy students with no interest in studying owes itself to this casteist segregation.](https://www.equalitylabs.org/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)
JOIN THE MOVEMENT
Ready to join the growing global movement for caste equity? Stay up to date on our work as we build a better future for our caste-oppressed community.