One battle won, many left for Mumbai varsity’s first trans graduate
MUMBAI:Three years ago, Sridevi made history by becoming the first University of Mumbai student to identify herself as a transgender person. Today, she holds a BA degree in sociology and psychology from MU’s Institute of Distance and Open Learning (IDOL).
Sridevi had enrolled at IDOL in 2015-16, the year MU introduced a ‘transgender’ column in the admission forms. In February 2017, Hindustan Times had reported that Sridevi was the first student of the university to officially identify herself as transgender.
She may be a graduate now, the struggle for Sridevi to find a job in the mainstream is far from over. “Graduation is only one battle won. I am qualified but I can’t get a job. People are still apprehensive of giving a job to a transwoman,” said Sridevi, who turned 36 on Thursday .
“I am working as a CAD designer for an electronics company and teaching children at a non-government organisation,” she said. But this job at the electronics company has also come after multiple rejections. “I want to start my own enterprise. I don’t know how to run a business yet but at least I will not have to depend on others for a job,” said Sridevi who left home two years ago and has been living in a Malad shanty since. “When I was living with my family, they were embarrassed of me. They limited my mobility and kept me locked in the house. I have every right to live a life, have aspirations.”
She understands her responsibility as one of the few of the community who have managed to stand up for themselves. “Minorities have thrived on the fringes for ever. To my trans-sisters I say, it is not your own fight, it is fight for the sisterhood,” said Sridevi who has taken admission for an MA in psychology at the Indira Gandhi National Open University.
IDOL spokesperson Vinod Malale said, “Sridevi is our first student to identify as a transgender. Not many followed her suit.””