In a strange play of irony, movements that are born to counter hegemonies still run the risk of falling prey to internal hierarchies, where the voices of the most marginalised among the marginalised tend to go unheard. Women, Dalit women at that, fall under this category today, as they did centuries ago when the Warkari sect took shape in present-day Maharashtra under the Bhakti tradition.

Among the 50 Marathi male and female poet-saints recognised under the Warkari tradition, it is the songs written by the men that are performed the most. "As someone who has grown up listening to abhangs and singing Bhakti poetry, I realised I could count the number of [Warkari] women poets I had sung songs of, on my fingers.