Caste, Exclusion and Mental Health

The link between caste and mental health is powerful and tortuous. People of lower caste communities, such as Dalits and Adivasis, constantly wrestle with the dilemma of whether to own their identity and be outspoken about it. It isn’t primarily because they are ashamed of it; rather, they are scared they won’t be able to flourish in the setting because upper-caste people often hold the majority in fields like education and workplaces. Not just in the context of education and employment, but also in most circumstances, such as when renting a place (where discrimination from upper caste landlords is present), facing caste bias in recruitment/promotion and during job interviews, etc. Everywhere you look, caste is present.