Caste, self-perception, and psychosocial health: Understanding the Dalit and Tribal children’s self-perception through their interaction with social institutions

Caste is the main social institution that organizes Indian society. Dalits lie outside the Varna system – they work with bodily fluids and are therefore polluted and not to be touched. Caste is strongly influencing the person’s self-worth, and also others’ perceptions of an individual make a major impact on the particular person’s health and psychosocial health.

This research was conducted to cull out how caste influences one's self-identity and perceptions by using the self and peer group reflection workshop method. 577 children, age group between 9 to 14 were part of this workshop in Tamilnadu, India. 30 community workers from the same socioeconomic background were trained to facilitate the workshop to reduce the gap between the participants and facilitators. 6 sessions were conducted to understand how their interaction with family, community, school, and media influences their self-perception.

The major findings are they talked about their physical appearance as ‘fair, lean, tall’, dictated by caste-based hierarchy and identity, as well as domestic violence and substance abuse in their families, familial and community disturbance, and caste-based discrimination. In the same workshop, some children talked about solutions to uplift their poor socioeconomic condition through political representation, a supportive educational environment, academic improvement, role model aspirations, and seeking help during crises.

This workshop influenced children to come up with recommendations to uplift their socioeconomic and political life. From this research, we can learn Despite the discrimination that the children face in their daily life, how children were reinforced to convert the internalized oppression into effective ways to bring themselves into the mainstream to balance social and psychosocial health.

Public health initiatives that aim to address the psychosocial health of communities need to acknowledge the role of caste in mental health outcomes and integrate anti-caste interventions, particularly for children and adolescents to mitigate the effects of structural inequities on their mental health.