Twenty-three-year-old Babli left her home in Badaun around eight years ago due to constant jibes from her neighbours and kin for being a transgender.
“When I realised my sexual orientation my family was very supporting, but the jibes from neighbours and relatives haunted me. A point came when I could no longer bear the taunts and decided to leave my home,” recalls Babli.
“I consulted a friend of mine who had been working as an orchestra dancer and I decided to join them to earn some money,” she adds.
One day while she was on tour with her orchestra team, she saw a person beating up a transgender person and it was then that she decided to work and study hard and become “something more” and make her community proud.
Faced several odds
Over seven years after that fateful day, Babli is now the first transgender to be working as a clerk at the Delhi High Court. She was appointed on October 24.
Talking to The Hindu , Babli says her father and school teacher are her role models. “The life lessons my father taught me gave me the strength to deal with any situation,” she says.
“People think that I am extraordinary. On many occasions I am called a role model. But I don’t want to preach to anybody or become a role model to anyone, I just want to lead a normal life,” she says.
After she decided to leave the orchestra, Babli joined Non-Government Organisation Pahel to help with her studies. Having missed many years of schooling, Babli would be up at the crack of dawn every day to study so she could keep up with her classmates.
After her studies, Babli got the chance to work on project with the Delhi State Legal Services Authority.
In September, Babli, along with five acid victims, were given employment at the Delhi High Court.
But feels bad about the way people treat the transgender.
‘Just want equality’
“I know the world sees us differently but at the end we are human too. I still do not understand why people see us as untouchables. This was not a choice, God has made us like this,” she says.
“People should treat us equally as we have done no harm to them. I have also worked with the Delhi Traffic Police on various campaigns for creating awareness about traffic rules and believe in doing social work,” she adds.
