Chitralekha, 48, a Dalit woman autorickshaw driver who fought a long and lonely battle against alleged caste discrimination and persecution by CPM supporters at Edatt in Payyanur in Kannur district, succumbed to cancer on Saturday.

Chitralekha waged a long battle with the CPI-M after its activists prevented her from working as an auto-driver in her native place. The woman auto-driver spent most of her life fighting the CPM, demanding her right to earn a livelihood. She faced severe opposition from the local CPM leadership and a section of auto-drivers in her hometown Edatt, in Payyannur, and had to flee from there following their threats.

Director Shekhar Kapur once shared her story on Instagram and wrote: “It’s a story of courage no less than that of Bandit Queen.”

She lived her life fighting for her basic human right to be treated with equality, a right she was denied with so much force. She had gained attention when her auto-rickshaw was set on fire back in 2005 allegedly by CPM workers.

In 2004 Chitralekha was in dire straits after she was forced to give up her education in nursing due to financial issues. The idea of driving an autorickshaw appealed to her; so she purchased a vehicle with the help of a bank loan and began to go to the stand in Edatt area of Payyanur.

All other drivers at that stand, who were members of the Centre for Indian Trade Union (CITU), a wing of the CPM, didn’t take to her arrival too kindly. As a Dalit, a woman and an autorickshaw driver, she was  often ostracized by other drivers, it has been alleged.

An added dimension to her troubles was her choice to have married a man from a different caste, an intermediate caste, which is classified as an OBC.

Determined not to be cowed down, Chitralekha began to fight back, and lodged complaints with the police over the alleged harassment. As a result, some of them were arrested, but still, the harassment continued and even turned into serious assault.

Chithralekha’s auto rickshaw  was set on fire twice in 2005 and 2023. She and her husband, Shreeshkant were assaulted several times. When the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) gave her a replacement auto rickshaw in June this year, she and her husband were not allowed to ply in Kannur city.