Ashwini KP is an Indian social worker, educationist and teacher. She came into limelight in October 2022 when she became the first Special Rapporteur (SR) for India as well as Asia to the United Nations.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Ashwini KP was born in 1986 (age 36 years; as of 2022) in Chikkaballapur, Karnataka, India. After completing her schooling at Ladyhill Victoria Girls High School and Mount Carmel Central School, Bengaluru, she joined Mount Carmel College, Bengaluru in 2003 and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History, Economics and Political Science in 2005. In 2006, he joined St. Joseph’s College, Bengaluru, and earned a Master of Arts (MA) degree in Political Science in 2008. During his MA studies, he wrote and published a thesis titled Land and the Caste Question: A Case Study of Land Reforms in Karnataka. In 2008, she joined Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi and earned a Master of Philosophy in South Asian Studies in 2011. He began pursuing a PhD in South Asian Studies from JNU in 2011 and completed his course in 2015. As an MPhil and a PhD student, she wrote a thesis titled International Dimensions of Dalit Human Rights: A Case Study of India and Nepal.
Family
Ashwini KP belongs to a Dalit family from Karnataka. His mother’s name is Jayamma.
parents and siblings
His father, Prasanna Kumar, is a retired Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) officer.
wife and children
His marital status is not known.
Caste
Ashwini KP is a Dalit.
Religion
Ashwini KP follows Buddhism.
livelihood
Ashwini KP has been participating in anti-caste movements with her family since childhood. While studying at JNU, Ashwini participated in several anti-caste movements organized by the United Dalit Students Forum and the United Dalits. Since 2014, Ashwini has been working as a volunteer in an NGO named Friends Charitable Trust. In 2017, she joined the international human rights group Amnesty International and worked as a senior campaigner there until 2019. As a senior campaigner, she organized several movements and demanded equal rights for tribals and women living in Chhattisgarh and Orissa. In 2018, he participated in Dalit History Month organized by Project Mukti.
In 2019, she co-founded an NGO called Zaria: Women’s Alliance for Dignity and Equality with her friend Maria Salim. From 2019 to 2020, he worked as a researcher at Project Mukti.
academician
Ashwini KP has written and published many research journals. In 2015, she published Mapping Social Exclusion in Higher Education: Experiences of Dalit Students. In the same year, she published another magazine titled Social Exclusion in Nepal: Hidden Realities of Marginalization of Dalit Women. On 6 June 2021, he published a journal titled International Dimensions of Caste-Based Discrimination: A Global Perspective of Dalit Human Rights.
teaching
Ashwini KP joined the Department of Political Science at St. Joseph’s College in 2015. He worked as a lecturer there until 2016. From June 2016 to December 2016, he served as a visiting faculty teacher in the Department of Political Science at Mount Carmel College. In 2019, she joined the Department of Political Science, St. Joseph’s University as an Assistant Professor.
United Nations
On 18 August 2022, Ashwini KP applied for the post of United Nations Special Rapporteur on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. In his application he wrote,
As an Indian Dalit woman myself, belonging to a marginalized community, working on issues related to race and occupation-based discrimination has been part of my professional space, research and activism and is not new to me.
On 7 October 2022, during its 51st session in Geneva, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) announced that Ashwini would become the sixth UN Special Rapporteur (SR) and her three-year tenure would begin on 1 November 2022. Shortlisted from among two other candidates.
But #HRC51Human Rights Council has appointed Ms. Ashwini KP #India As the new Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. pic.twitter.com/xC3Rb1Efw0
– United Nations Human Rights Council (@UN_HRC) 7 October 2022
During an interview conducted after her selection, Ashwini said that as an SR, she would focus on addressing global issues like casteism, apartheid, religion-based violence, equal rights for the LGBTQIA+ community, etc. Talking about this he said,
I will focus on apartheid, racism, region-based discrimination, Islamophobia, discrimination against immigrants, etc. I will focus specifically on racism within the Indian diaspora in the US and discrimination against migrant workers in West Asia. The racism that African women face is different from others. The struggle of Muslim women is different. So, I’m very interested in looking at gender issues in racism. When we are appointed as Special Rapporteurs, we have to choose a topic. I’m very curious about gender within racism. I am interested in understanding how racism affects women and people in the LGBTQ community and focus on the many layers of discrimination.
Locals celebrate Ashwini’s appointment as SR in UN
Facts/General Knowledge
- Many sources state her name as KP Ashwini.
- In 2014, Ashwini KP was part of a delegation that visited the United Nations (UN), representing Dalits of India.
Ashwini KP (centre) during her visit to the United Nations in 2014.
- In 2015, she worked as an event organizer at the Center for the Study of Discrimination and Exclusion, School of Social Sciences, based at JNU.
- At the Center for Social and Criminology Research, Middlesex University London, Ashwini worked as an event organizer in 2016.
- Ashwini KP is an Ambedkarite and follows the ideology of Dr. BR Ambedkar.
- For publishing in several academic journals, Ashwini was selected for a study tour at Columbia University, New York, United States.
- During an interview, Ashwini claimed that once during a lecture, a student threatened her when she was talking about women’s rights in India. He also said that he has faced discrimination throughout his life because of his caste. Talking about this he said,
During a class in college to talk about women’s rights, Dalit rights, thoughts of Baba Saheb, Basavanna and Buddha, one of the students got up and directly threatened me “Neve Kalejali Hengirathira Nodatini”. Whatever the economic background of our family, I faced discrimination because of my caste, being a Dalit. Because of my caste, I have lost opportunities in some fields. In all these places, caste is not a direct cause of opportunity fraud.”
- Ashwini follows a non-vegetarian diet.
An Instagram post by Ashwini KP
- Ashwini fulfills her hobbies of painting, photography and traveling with full enthusiasm.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn