For 35-year-old Stella and a group of 20 transwomen, all folk artistes from Cuddalore district, summer is when they perform in temple festivals across southern districts and earn a decent income. During March to July, these artistes perform traditional folk dances such as karagattam , kali aattam and Karuppasamy Aattam at the temple festivals.
“I used to dress up as Karuppasamy and dance to eulogies penned for the village deity. We perform for eight hours and earn ₹1,000 to ₹1,500 each,” she says. However, this summer has turned out to be disastrous. In the wake of COVID-19 lockdown, all the temple festivals have been cancelled. These artistes solely dependent on income they earn during this period to see through the rest of the year.
Ms. Stella says most of the artistes have either pawned their jewellery or borrowed from money-lenders for their sustenance. “With no source of income, we are all dependent on friends and good Samaritans to feed ourselves. Three artistes in our group, who are dependent on income from these performances to pay for their college tuition fee, are affected the most,” she says.
“We are paid in advance to perform in the temple festivals. With the cancellation of events, we have returned the money. With no source of income, we are looking for help for our sustenance", says K. Suji, another artiste.
“Some humanitarians gave us rice, vegetables, groceries and oil. But we want the government to look into our plight and help us during the crisis,” she adds.
This scenario holds true for all transgender folk artistes across the State, says K. Muthupandi who runs Thanga Thaai Gramiya Kalai Kuzhu in Madurai and engages transwomen for his shows. “Since most of them do not have transgender identity cards, they are not eligible for financial assistance given by the State government. Hence, the government must look into their problems and give financial assistance to all the folk artistes during these testing times ,” he says.
Kalaiarasi, who has been performing karagattam for the past 30 years, says that performing traditional folk dances helps in carving an identity for themselves. “It is difficult for us to get a good job. Through our performances, we remind people about vanishing art forms.”
