Durga Sob was born on July 3, 1966.[2] She grew up in Silgadi, in western Nepal where she faced discrimination for being a Dalit.[3] Her family was polygamous, with her father having two wives and several children, though many of Sob's siblings died in childhood.[2] Sob went to school with her brother, who had convinced her parents to give her an education.[2] Sob later used her education to teach girls in her neighborhood how to read and write.[4]
When Sob was 19, she moved to Kathmandu and worked for ActionAid and later met Robin Morgan who encouraged her to start an organization to help Dalit women.[3] In 1994, she found the Feminist Dalit Organization (FEDO).[3] Between 2002 and 2004, Sob served as the president of the Dalit NGO Federation (DNF).[5] Sob led an Asia Dalit Rights Forum in Kathmandu in 2014.[6] The forum included activists from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and members decided to work together to end discrimination.[6] In 2015, Sob participated in a hunger strike to protest the citizenship laws of Nepal that only allowed a father to pass down citizenship by descent.[7]
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