ABSTRACT
Dalit girls’ completion of school education and journey to access higher education is a complex process. In this endeavour, the family is one such social institution that plays a critical role in shaping, influencing and controlling their access to higher education. Based on narratives of nineteen Dalit girls’ pursuing higher education from one of the Universities in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh India, this chapter explores the relation of family, patriarchy and Dalit girls’ access to higher education. Dalit girls were brought up in families who had achieved differential mobility. There is a diversity in their experiences that constructs a nuanced picture of their struggle and negotiation for higher education. The chapter explores how family differentially constructs, nurtures and controls daughters’ self to access higher education. Dalit girls who were placed at different points in the intersection of caste, class and gender exercised their agency to negotiate caste, class and gender controls.
