This powerful opinion piece by Shweta Katti challenges the global development sector to move beyond amplifying survivor stories and toward genuinely supporting survivor leadership. Drawing from her lived experience growing up in Mumbai’s red-light area, she makes a compelling case for shifting power, trust, and resources to communities themselves—highlighting how survivor-led initiatives like Kranti are…
The Global Forum of Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (GFOD) has released a powerful Call to Action: Advancing Gender Equality by Recognizing Women Discriminated on Work and Descent at CSW70. This paper highlights the persistent exclusion of Dalit, Roma, Burakumin, Haratin, Quilombola, Palenque, and other descent-based communities from global gender equality frameworks. It underscores…
Discrimination based on work and descent remains a largely unaddressed form of structural racism in Europe, disproportionately affecting Roma, Dalit, Haratine, and other caste-like communities who face exclusion rooted in inherited status, ancestral occupation, and caste-based hierarchies. The input highlights how these groups continue to experience segregation, barriers to education, housing and employment, political underrepresentation,…
Roma communities across Europe continue to face some of the highest levels of poverty and social exclusion, driven not by individual circumstances but by structural discrimination, antigypsyism, and inherited social hierarchies. The document highlights how 70% of Roma people remain at risk of poverty compared to 16% of the general EU population, and how deprivation…
Roma women across Europe continue to face deep structural inequalities shaped by antigypsyism, gender discrimination, and socioeconomic exclusion. Drawing on data from multiple European countries, the report highlights challenges in accessing healthcare, education, employment, and protection from gender-based and institutional violence. Despite their vital role in communities, Roma women remain largely absent from national strategies…
