Trans-News From India

I came across this article in Women’s eNews about trans-people in India and how one person can make a difference.

Indian Video Activist Puts Transgender in Focus
By Paromita Pain
WeNews correspondent
Sunday, February 20, 2011

Kalki Subramaniam's video project for transgender women in India began with her own scholarship in video making. Now she's assisting other transgender women to shoot their own video as a way of breaking out of poverty and abuse.

CHENNAI, India (WOMENSENEWS)--About six months ago Kalki Subramaniam asked herself a question.

"What if India's transgender women created their own media?"

She got her answer recently, when eight brief documentaries--each between two and five minutes--were shown at the Russian Cultural Center here and drew a standing ovation from viewers after the lights came back on.

The filmmakers turned their attention outward. One movie was about the struggles of the differently abled. Another concerned the abandonment of old people. Another showed the way of life of fishermen.
[…]
Transgender women here are often forced out of their families and left to find whatever way they can to survive. Many, according to Subramanian, join other transgendered women who, by long tradition in South India, form a familial structure under a "mother" figure. To forge a new identity many take on female names and often conceal their surnames as a safeguard against harassment.

One of the filmmakers who spoke with Women's eNews is Kanchana.

"I live in a slum," she said. "For years my identity was a transgender who begged for a living. The day they saw the camera, instead of my begging bowl, it changed people's reactions towards me forever."
[…]
"As the first openly transgender person in my college, my life was a lot about sneering teachers and classmates who thought jokes about gender identity were funny," she [Kalki Subramaniam ] said recently in a phone interview. "But the course taught me to appreciate the power of the media. Mainstream media has usually depicted us as depraved creatures to be mocked for our gestures and orientation."
[…]
"Most of the funding that comes into India is meant for HIV-affected transgender people," she said. "What we need are also services to make sure that transgenders are not left open to abuse that increases their chances of becoming positive. Creating an atmosphere more accepting of us will prevent hate crimes, enable us to get educated and thus be less exploited in life."

One person can create change, all you need is a vision.