Ashwini K. P. Age, Caste, Family, Biography & More

Some Lesser Known Facts About Ashwini K. P.

• Ashwini K. P. is an Indian human rights activist, teacher, and academician who became the first Special Rapporteur (SR) from India and Asia in the United Nations (UN) on 7 October 2022. ^[5]The Quint

• Ashwini’s career as a social activist started at a young age. She often participated in anti-caste movements with her family while she was in school. While studying at JNU, she joined the United Dalit Students’ Forum and Samyukta Dalit and took part in several campaigns against the oppression of the lower castes in India.

• Ashwini joined the Friends Charitable Trust, an NGO, as a volunteer in 2014.

• In the same year, she was a member of the team which was representing the Dalits of India at the United Nations (UN).
  

  A photo of Ashwini K. P. (in the middle) taken when she was representing the Dalits in the United Nations (UN)

• As an academician, Ashwini has researched and published many theses like Mapping Social Exclusion in Higher Education: Experiences of Dalit students (2015), Social Exclusion in Nepal: Concealed Realities of the Marginalization of Dalit Women (2015), International Dimension of Caste-Based Discrimination: A Global Perspective of Dalit Human Rights (2021).

• She worked at JNU as an event organizer for the Centre for the Study of Discrimination and Exclusion (CSDE) in 2015.

• From 2015 to 2016, at the Department of Political Science of St. Joseph’s College in Karnataka, Ashwini worked as a lecturer.

• In June 2016, she started working at Mount Carmel College in Karnataka. She worked there in the Department of Political Science as a guest faculty teacher till December 2016.

• In the same year, Ashwini organised several events for the Center for Social and Criminology Research at Middlesex University London.

• Ashwini worked with Amnesty International, an international human rights organization, as a senior campaigner from 2017 to 2019. While working there, she organized campaigns demanding equal rights for the Adivasis and women.

• She was also a part of Project Mukti-organized Dalit History Month, which took place in 2018.

• Ashwini and her friend Mariya Salim founded Zariya: Women’s Alliance for Dignity and Equality, an NGO, in 2019.

• In 2019, she started working with Project Mukti as a researcher and worked there till 2020.

• She started working at St. Joseph’s University in Karnataka as an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science in 2019.

• For her academic achievements, she was once shortlisted by the New York-based Columbia University for a study tour.

• Ashwini is a follower of Ambedkarism and follows the teachings of Dr B. R. Ambedkar.

• For the post of United Nations Special Rapporteur for Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, Ashwini filled out the application form on 18 December 2022. In her application form, she wrote,
  

  Belonging to a marginalised community myself, an Indian Dalit woman, working on issues related to descent and occupation based discrimination has been part of my professional space, research and activism and are not new to me.”

  Ashwini was selected for the post by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) out of two other candidates during the 51st session of the UN in Geneva on 7 October 2022. She replaced Zambia’s E. Tendayi Achiume and became the sixth Special Rapporteur (SR). Her 3-year tenure began on 1 November 2022. After her name was announced, Ashwini, during an interview, told the media that as an SR her priorities would be to address issues like casteism, apartheid, religion-based violence, equal rights for the LGBTQIA+ community, and more. She further said,

  I will focus on apartheid, racism, region-based discrimination, Islamophobia, discrimination against the migrants, and so on. I will draw a specific focus on racism within the Indian diaspora in the US and discrimination against migrants workers in West Asia. The racism faced by the African women is different from others. The struggles of the Muslim women is different. So, I am very much interested in looking at gender issues in racism. When we are appointed as special rapporteurs, we have to choose a theme. I am very keen on gender within racism. I am interested in understanding how racism affects women and people from the LGBTQ community and focus on the multiple layers of discrimination.”

  

  Ashwini being felicitated after her selection as Special Rapporteur (SR)

• For talking about women’s empowerment and the rights of the Dalits during a lecture, she was once threatened by his student. She also said that she has faced discrimination because of her caste and had to miss out on several opportunities. During an interview, while talking about it, she said,
  

  One of the students got up and directly threatened me with “Neve Kallejali Hengirthira Nodtini” for talking about women’s rights, Dalit rights, Baba Saheb, Basavanna, and Buddha’s thoughts in the college during a class. Whatever was the economic background of our family, I had to face discrimination because I was a Dalit because of my caste. Because of my caste, I have lost opportunities in some areas. In all these places, caste is not directly the cause of opportunity fraud.”