Vijila Chirappad

Vijila Chirappad (born 1981 (age 39)) is an Indian Dalit poet who writes in Malayalam.

Life and work
Born in Kozhikode, Kerala, Chirappad's poems speak of the experience of living life as a Dalit woman. Her poetry explores how the double burden of gender and caste shapes the lives and struggles of Dalit women in Kerala in distinct ways than women of dominant castes. Her work also discusses how, despite Kerala's communist history, casteism pervades everyday life there.

In our home There is no TV No fridge Neither mixer Nor grinder No LPG Not even an iron-box. Yet my mother knew How to operate these Much before I did. Because Like in Madhavikutty’s stories And the novels of MT She is Janu- The servant.

— Vijila Chirappad She Who Flew AforeChirappad's work includes three collections of poetry in Malayalam: Adukala Illathaa Veedu (A Home without a Kitchen, 2006), Amma Oru Kalpanika Kavitha Alla (Mother is not a Poetic Figment of our Imagination, 2009), and Pakarthi Ezhuthu (Copied Notes, 2015). Her poems "A Place for Me", "Can't Grow My Nails" and "The Autobiography of a Bitch" have also been included in the 2012 Oxford India Anthology of Malayalam Dalit Writing. chandrika chechi of the Wasteland talks about the homes one enters only through the back door.

of the flats where one enters through the front door — the ones with the porch light on.

returning daily from the marketplace both the fish and she share the same path — the one through the back door.

entering through the very same route, while hearing the television blare the pledge aloud on August 15 — all Indians are my brothers and sisters.

— Virila Chirappad Wasteland Chirappad has participated in the Kerala Literature festival and also in the prestigious Hay Festival of Literature and Arts as part of an event on Dalit Poetry in Malayalam.