©ARC Page | 96 A Quest for Gender Equality in Meena Kandasamy’s Touch

Abstract: Gender denotes socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a particular society considers appropriate for men and women. It is decided by cultural, social, political and economic forces which influence social behavior of men and women. The gender difference is the foundation of a structural inequality between a man and woman. The discrimination based on the gender of a person is perpetuated through the social-cultural and psychological mechanisms prevalent in society. The question of social marginalization and the issue of gender inequality are inseparable. Meena Kandasamy, the first Indian woman poet writing Dalit poetry in English, in her poetry, raises her voice against the gender inequality and systematic subjugation of Indian woman. Her poetry arises not out of her reading and knowledge, but out of her own experience and active engagement with the cause of championing caste and gender equality. Touch (2006), her first published collection of poetry, is a clear-sighted, unafraid and a scathing attack on the perpetuation of the social patriarchal oppression of women in general and the Dalit women in particular