While the beauty pageant Miss Koovagam and the Koothandavar temple rituals are the highlights of the annual festival for the transgenders, community-based organisations (CBO) and activists are using the festival platform this year to reflect on achievements in the last decade, and the road ahead.
The 18-day festival witnesses the congregation of transgenders from around the country and abroad. The Miss Koovagam contest, held this year on Monday evening, is a huge draw.
Festivities then move to the Koothandavar Temple in Ulundurpet taluk where the community commemorates the incident from the Mahabharata, where Krishna takes on the female form to marry Aravan, son of Arjuna, before he is sacrificed the next day. The transgender community re-enact the rituals of marriage and widowhood as a form of worship.
S. Sudha, who heads Thozhi, a CBO in Chennai, said, “The festival helps us share our concerns with our community members from other places in India, and the public. This year, we organised a meeting with young political leaders to sensitise them. We have seen a vast improvement over the last ten years with regard to how our community is perceived, and our rights. It is now time to also include the rights of men who have sex with men (MSM) in welfare measures.”
Breakthroughs
While accepting the Supreme Court ruling on the recognition of transgenders as the third gender in 2014 as a huge breakthrough, Dr. Vijayaraman, Deputy Director, Voluntary Health Services, said that there was still much farther to go, especially in terms of family and societal acceptance, and employment opportunities for the community. Another significant breakthrough has been the Rights of Transgender Persons Bill which was passed by the Rajya Sabha in April this year.
Transgenders and organisations will be felicitating DMK MP Tiruchi Siva, the man behind the Bill, at the festival.
Celebrations this year have also included a sensitisation drive among auto drivers in Villupuram organised by the VHS. Stickers with messages on rights of transgenders were distributed to increase visibility.
Clean-up programme
Transgenders will participate in a clean-up programme heeding to the Swachh Bharat Mission, apart from organising mobile blood banks and organ donation drives.
“We want people to know we too can contribute towards a healthy society,” said Ms. Sudha.
Among states in India, Tamil Nadu has led the path towards equality for the community with the setting up of a Transgender Welfare Board, a pension and housing scheme, easing of access to sex change surgeries in government hospitals, issuance of voter identity cards and subsidised bank loans.
“We have seen over the last few years how the focus has moved beyond just HIV prevention to include the rights and concerns of the transgender community,” said Daniel Vinod from the Centre for Advocacy and Research.
