'The women who lay the skins of cattle to dry, and sit next to them, inhaling the stench, and write by the light of a small oil lamp... are the true creators of Dalit literature.'

In these words, Kalyani Thakur Charal explains why Dalit women writers are different, and how hard it has been for them to write and get published. Until a few decades ago, Dalit literature in Bengal was written mainly by men, who were disregarded by mainstream publishing and impelled to run their own publishing ventures, literary journals like Chaturtha Daniya, which also provided space for women. Little magazines edited by women like Ekhon Takbon, Neer Ritupatra, Adal Badal and Ateeb played a vital role in this regard. Dalit women's writings have not been compiled and translated in English before and this pioneering selection makes their work visible to a wider audience.

Recognizing the political and social complexities where caste is invisibilized, Sayantan Dasgupta suggests that the anthology brings together 'gender and caste as the point of entry, though class, too, figures as a core defining element in the chosen pieces, constructing a particular, complex and layered literary landscape as a part of Bangla literature that generally seems to escape our eyes'.