India’s Odisha state launches program to empower transgender people
Despite being celebrated as iconic characters in ancient texts; dancing at a wedding for someone else; clapping and dancing while blessing a newborn baby at any home; transgender Indians are still ostracized and not able to get a job, get married or live a decent life.
Such was the consequence of 200 years of British colonial suppression in India, but things are changing for trans people in India.
Several states began to introduce measures to help the trans community after the Indian Supreme Court‘s 2014 ruling that recognized a trans person as a “third gender,” and the passage of the Transgender Person (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 in the Indian Parliament.
Odisha, a state in eastern India, is working to make trans people part of mainstream society through its Sweekruti “acceptance” program.
