Seema Baitha
Seema Baitha, from the Dhobi community in the Madhesh, has a Bachelor’s degree. She is a teacher. She is the daughter of mother Munni Devi and father Lalan Baitha of Bazar Tol in Ward 6 of Chandrapur Municipality in Rautahat.
For a long time, her family occupation was to wash the clothes of other families. When the washing
business dried up during the COVID-19 pandemic, her family sold chappals slippers to make a living. There has been an improvement in the livelihood situation of the family since Seema’s husband went abroad as a migrant labourer. Since she is the only child of her parents, Seema has been living with her them even after her marriage. She looks after her parents and is bringing up two young sons. She sells chappals at the marketplace, and while at home she makes decorative painting on clothes and also sews.
Seema has seen many
She experienced humiliation because of the very occupation that her family had followed for generations. Now she wants every Madheshi Dalit woman to have the right to live with dignity. She says that she doesn’t want them to experience any kind of torture, discrimination, humiliation or oppression. She wants to become a teacher or a professor and provide a life of dignity for her parents who have already endured a lifetime of humiliation. She wants to be recognized for her work and her achievements by her neighbours.
Seema Baitha, from the Dhobi community in the Madhesh, has a Bachelor’s degree. She is a teacher. She is the daughter of mother Munni Devi and father Lalan Baitha of Bazar Tol in Ward 6 of Chandrapur Municipality in Rautahat.
For a long time, her family occupation was to wash the clothes of other families. When the washing
business dried up during the COVID-19 pandemic, her family sold chappals slippers to make a living. There has been an improvement in the livelihood situation of the family since Seema’s husband went abroad as a migrant labourer. Since she is the only child of her parents, Seema has been living with her them even after her marriage. She looks after her parents and is bringing up two young sons. She sells chappals at the marketplace, and while at home she makes decorative painting on clothes and also sews.
Seema has seen many incidents of discriminations since her childhood. The villagers taunted her as the daughter of the washer man. When her father went around the village to collect dirty laundry, it was not handed to him, rather it was put by his side or dropped from above. When the family was paid in grains for washing the clothes, the wages were poured onto the end of her grandmother’s sari, as if the others were afraid of touching her. When she witnessed such practices of untouchability she was filled with wonder about why they were being treated like that. Therefore, she was always uncomfortable whenever anyone asked her about her family occupation.
She experienced humiliation because of the very occupation that her family had followed for generations. Now she wants every Madheshi Dalit woman to have the right to live with dignity. She says that she doesn’t want them to experience any kind of torture, discrimination, humiliation or oppression. She wants to become a teacher or a professor and provide a life of dignity for her parents who have already endured a lifetime of humiliation. She wants to be recognized for her work and her achievements by her neighbours.
She wants severe punishment for anyone who engages in caste-based discrimination or untouchability. She believes that the strengthening and development of Dalit women requires the state to create special provisions. Dalit women must secure their own rights. Seema thinks education is central to that pursuit, and also recognizes that the caste system has deprived women of land ownership. He believes that the lack of land as property among Dalits results in difficulty in obtaining citizenship, and also in accessing education and government benefits. She is setting out to write stories – her own, and those of others. In her opinion, all writing must clearly show the sources. Writing is a skill that begins from critical thinking but also reaches deep thinking. She believes that her studies have increased the confidence in her to be able to achieve something good. She believes that it is extremely important to learn and teach about the intersection of caste, gender and sexuality while keeping the Madheshi Dalit woman at the centre of the discourse.
