Dashing home to get a drink of water during school breaks was Sarswati Nepali’s first taste of injustice. Born into a Dalit family from Baitadi, a district in the far-west of Nepal, she was not allowed to drink from the same tap, cup or bucket as other pupils.
“I had to run to my home, which was 25 minutes away, to drink water during the school break because as a Dalit I was not allowed to touch the water in school,” says Nepali, 41, now one of Nepal’s most prominent activists for Dalit rights. “Many times I had to leave my classes because I was thirsty.”
