ABSTRACT
This chapter examines emergence of collective activism out of literacy learning among underprivileged (Dalit) women in one of the slums of Mumbai (India). Against the background of a literacy learning programme, this ethnographic fieldwork aims to understand how gender is constructed, operated and reinforced through various structures in the community, what aspect of the literacy programme stimulated women to challenge prevalent gender norms and how these structures react to women’s awakening vis-à-vis their position and situation.
