India’s rigid stance on sexuality has always made it difficult for transgenders to breathe freely in our country. Even though we have come a long way in being more accepting of them, being looked down upon is still something which plagues them and activists have had a huge hand in ushering such a change in.
Indian transgender activist Kalki Subramaniam has been invited to speak at the Harvard University’s India Conference 2017. The conference is to be held from February 11 to 12 and their theme for this year is ‘India-The Global Growth Engine’. Jointly organised by the students at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Harvard Business School, it is the largest and most prestigious student-led conference in the US focusing on India.
With their theme this year, the focus will be on opportunities presented by India’s potential in all fields. Kalki Subramaniam will be speaking on February 11 at the conference, wherein she will highlight the issues faced by the transgender community in the country.
Kalki has been the first transgender woman to have secured herself a role in a motion picture. Having starred in a Tamil film and actively worked for transgender rights, Kalki feels the major hurdle Indian transgenders face is acceptance from family. Given the state of affairs in most Indian households that have issues accepting their non-transgender kids for reasons best known to them, this comes as no shock.
Kalki has said that low self-esteem, and suicidal tendencies are common issues among the transgender community and is made worse by non-acceptance from families. Here’s hoping Kalki Subramaniam bringing this issue up on an international platform will help improve the condition of transgenders in our country.
