Sathya Shri Sharmila
Sathya Shri Sharmila, a 37-year-old first transgender lawyer, has set a benchmark around the nation. “I changed my name into Sathya Shri Sharmila inorder to honour my trans mother, who pushed me to study further when I left home and came to Mumbai,” says Sathya. Sathya left her house while she was studying law after facing severe discrimination. “I completed my graduation in Company Secretary (CS) and did my second undergraduate degree in Law. Then, I enrolled myself in the Indian Bar Council on 2017 and in June 2018, I became the first transgender lawyer in India,” recalls Sathya. She strongly believes that only education can change the mentality people have towards transgenders. “My only motto in life is to change the way people see and think about us. When I became an advocate, for the first time the whole world gave me respect and that’s how I want every transgender to be seen,” says Sathya.
Grace Banu
At 30, she is more proud of being adoptive mother to seven transgender children, than of being an engineer, the first transgender student to receive admission in an engineering college in Tamil Nadu.
But that isn’t to say Grace Banu’s education was easy. When she spoke out about her gender, her school did not let her continue her studies. The principal eventually allowed her back, but with some conditions. She was allowed to enter after everyone had settled, not allowed to sit in the classroom, not allowed to talk to anyone. Those who spoke to her were punished, and sent home early. “People were also more brutal because of my caste,” she says. The ordeal drove her to a suicide attempt, but she survived.
“Even my family never understood me. After knowing my gender they got me admitted in an asylum,” says Banu. But that, she says, “Is when I started reading books about my community.”
“Every transperson has a story to share. My ambition is to ensure that no one suffers the way I did. I want to educate more and more people from the community, so that they get all the privileges that a human deserves,” signs off Banu.
M Radha
“I used to get beaten up for behaving like a woman. I still have scars from those incidents,” says 50-year-old M Radha, Tamil Nadu’s first independent transgender candidate, to have contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Radha realised that she is a transwoman when she was 12 years old, but never had the courage to come out until she left her house at the age of 18. Initially, she begged on the streets for survival and after a few months, was adopted by a transwoman named Ramu amma who encouraged her to continue her education. Radha eventually did her graduation in Economics and secured her Masters degree in English Literature.
“It took me seven years to change my name from Ramanujam to Radha after becoming a transwoman. But when our mentor I Jayanthi, who is a magistrate in the High Court got herself involved, I got my name changed in a week. That’s when I understood how power works,” says Radha. That’s when Radha, then a cook, started dreaming of becoming a politician. She filed her nomination on March 23. “We don’t get essential rights that heterosexuals enjoy. We have to protest, struggle and battle for our survival. My dream is to give my community the rights and equality they deserve,” signs off Radha.
Narthaki Natraj
This 54-year-old Bharatanatyam dancer considers herself stuck in her 20s, and says she still dances like that. “I never cursed or blamed myself for being feminine. I always loved it, though no one accepted me and some even abused me. I still worship my body for the way it is,” says Padma Shri awardee Narthaki Natraj.
It took her 15 years of learning, under guru Kittappa Pillai, to become a professional in the Nayaki Bhavana tradition of the Thanjavur parampara. She says she uses her femininity as a tool to express herself through dance.
“I always made sure that I do not get treated differently because I am transgender. I want to attain success only through hard work and passion and not through sympathy” said Narthaki. Not only is she the country’s first transwoman to have been awarded the Padma Shri, but she has also earned other honours like the Kalaimamani.
