‘Lack of education keeps third gender inside a shell’
LUCKNOW: One should respect diversity, not only in religions, attires and cultures but also sexual preferences. This was the take away from the deliberations on the concluding day of the twoday Awadh Queer Literature Fest here on Saturday.
Unlike Day 1 when there were interesting sessions like ‘Struggle for Social Justice’, images and narratives of queer people in media, the focus on the second day was on politics and interfaith dialogue.
The fest picked up at around 1pm, with the first session ‘Left, Right, Centre: Politics within Queer Spaces’. Maya Sharma, a renowned author, Nighat Gandhi, a writer, sufi wanderer and a health counsellor, Dhananjay, Punjab University’s first transgender student and Dr Akhil K Gautam, another author were the main panellists who discussed the visibility of third genders and lesbians in main politics at length.
“The reason behind the poor visibility of third genders is themselves. No doubt they do strong politics within the community but when it comes to centre stage they want a back seat. Why? Because a majority of their population believes that coming to power would stop their source of income that is ‘badhai maangna’ (asking for money on auspicious occasions). And this is the major reason why they don’t want to come out of their shell and join politics barring a few,” pointed out Dhananjay, the first third gender student of Punjab University who is working for the welfare of the ‘Hijra’ (third gender) community.
She also pointed out that the main reason behind the conservative mindset was lack of education.
IT STRONGLY EMERGED DURING THE SESSIONS THAT THERE WAS NEED TO RESPECT DIVERSITY NOT ONLY IN VIEWS, ATTIRE , RELIGION AND CULTURE BUT ALSO SEXUAL ORIENTATION
She said 95% of Hijras were illiterate or school drop outs. “Perhaps this is the reason why they want to remain in their shells,” she added.
Some of the panellists also highlighted the contribution of third genders in the First War of Independence. “It was their active contribution which forced the British government to ban welfare schemes for third genders and project them in a bad light,” another panellist added.
Dr Akhil Gautam advocated ground level work for the welfare of the third genders and people hailing from LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) community.
It strongly emerged during the sessions that there was need to respect diversity, not only in views, attire , religion and culture etc but also sexual orientation. The programme concluded with a session on interfaith dialogue with discussion on the topic: Can Queerness and Religion Co-exist?
‘Waiting’, a collection of stories was launched and a prize distribution ceremony was also held on Saturday
Yadavendra Singh Darvesh, the convener of the programme said the fest witnessed good crowd on both the days.
On Sunday, the Awadh Queeer Price 2019 walk would take off from Dainik Jagran crossing at around 1pm.