Workshop on Caste, Religion, Education and Occupational Mobility in Contemporary South Asia

Workshop on Caste, Religion, Education and Occupational Mobility in Contemporary South Asia

Time: Tuesday 23r April 2024 (10-4pm UK)

Location: Hybrid – Online + Lancaster University

Open to the public, as well as university staff and students. Registration HERE.

Background

This workshop links to an ongoing British Council funded project, led by Lancaster University

and the Centre for Law and Justice, on access to further education and employment among

minority Dalit Christian women and girls in Pakistan, whose parents are engaged in sanitation and

domestic work. Drawing on key learnings from this and another ongoing project on the challenges

to occupational mobility among sanitation workers and their families in Bangladesh and India,

we seek to widen the conversation, to examine how challenges and opportunities are mediated by

caste, religion, and gender across the region, and in different occupational sectors. We aim to create

an inclusive and supportive space for reflection and dialogue, and encourage participation from

underrepresented scholars and activists.

Agenda

The workshop will include a mixture of in-person and online guest speakers, reflecting on the

following thematic areas:

Session 1: Caste and religion across South Asia (notably Pakistan, Nepal, India,

Bangladesh). This includes a wider discussion of historical formation and reproduction of

caste and religion, and contemporary challenges facing Dalits across the region.

Session 2: Challenges to, and opportunities for accessing further education (beyond

secondary school) for Dalit, religious minorities in South Asia today.

Session 3: Challenges to, and opportunities for accessing a range of employment

opportunities with/without further education (outside hereditary or ascribed occupations).

Connecting across these wider themes, we want to highlight the actions of, and ways to support

Dalit youth in breaking through barriers in access to further education and employment, as well as

progressive examples of educational and occupational mobility.