India gets first transgender college principal

Manobi Bandypadhyay. Image via Facebook.

By Asian Correspondent Staff May 28, 2015 

It has been a big week for Manobi Bandypadhyay, who has finally realised her dream of becoming India’s first transgender principal after a years-long struggle.

Manor will will head the Krishnagar Women’s College in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. According to local official Dipak K. Kar, Banerjee is expected to start her new job on June 9.

Transgender activists have hailed the decision as a major step forward for a transgender community that usually faces widespread discrimination.

In 2006, after Manobi changed her gender and her name, authorities refused to recognise her new identity.

“There were taunts at work about my sex change. At home, my parents and siblings were worried sick whether my body would be able to cope with the changes,” she told the BBC.

With perseverence, things got better for Manobi as people came to terms with her new identity, which was eventually recognised by a new government in West Bengal in 2011.

While discrimination is still widespread, things have been looking up for India’s transgender people in recent years. In 2009, election authorities allowed transgenders to mark their gender as ‘other’ on voting forms.

Last year, India’s Supreme Court declared the transgender community as a legal third gender, granting them minority rights and privileges to education, employment and health benefits.

Manage, however, recognises that there is still a long way to go. She told the Times of India: “Even today parents think that this is a mental health issue. A few days back, a boy from Burdwan committed suicide when he couldn’t stand the pressure from his parents, who wanted him to take psychiatric help because he was a transgender.”

Additional reporting from Associated Press