Role of Community and Education in Transgender Empowerment | Rituparna Neog | TEDxIITGuwahati
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99rzpc-FIr8 Video ID: 99rzpc-FIr8 ============================================================ [Music] uh zindabad satrangi Salam can I hear this from all of you also zindabad zad sangi Salam satam thank you thank you so much for being with me uh as uh they introduced me also I again want to say that I'm Rua a proud transgender women from this beautiful Lam I belong to a rural area and as I said I'm a proud transgender women but was I always a proud transgender person or was I allowed to be proud even also or is it a case for many people like me who feels that they are proud or they can take pride on being themselves it's not in our country or in our state or in our society if you are Beyond binary if you do not fit into the binary box then you are not allowed to take pride beat on your gender identity beat on your sexual orientation beat your color religion cast ethnicity anything if you're little bit different then you are not going to get the dignity what you deserve in our society what do we ask when we get to know know that there is a newborn baby just has arrived into this world in we ask l in Hindi we say whether it is a boy or it is a girl our life starts with that basic question nobody tries to understand or nobody try to say that a new life has just arrived to this world in the form of New Life something potential has just arrived which can change the world nobody think about it and we always try to think whether is it a boy or it is a girl in Asami Society we say you don't need to even ask also if you are getting the biggest fish or the piece of fish is bigger then it's a boy or in phone if say h it's okay try next time then it's a girl so you don't need to go for that also but then doctor decide or th decide or whatever they decide and I say this is the biggest or this is the most dangerous question and you may be thinking that there's a work going on is this is going on and is saying that this is the most dangerous question when we ask L yes it's a dangerous question I believe because this question question defines our whole life who is going to get what kind of opportunity who is going to get what kind of education who is going to get married at what age who is going to sacrifice their life their soice their wish who is going to choose what kind of career who is going to get die because of doubting or who is going to get died in the womb also all these are decided by disc question even when we say Boys Don't Cry or boys can't cry this is also decided by that question as a boy you have to be always strong enough you have to be protector or being a girl you have to be the caring one it's all decided by that question and that question is also so dangerous that it suffocates someone so much that they are forced to take their life yes I'm talking about transgender identity that if you do not fit into that box of boys and girls that the society push you so much so much that you were forced to take your life and the problem starts at home all the bully harassment and not acceptance it starts at home and when you just step out of your home to school it's the same scenario in our society we still Fe we still feel that or see that my community or my people are still forced or they are pushed out of their home there's no Acceptance in Education Institute there are bully there are harassment even your teacher doesn't understand you your friends do not accept you my people are still begging in the street they're into so uh sex work just to meet the daily bread and there are people who are taking their life because the society do not accept them there's no inclusion in the Health Care System there's no solution for sustainable livelihood so that you can have a dignified life now we are progressing in a society we can see that laws are in place and there are Provisions for my community also but still there is a long battle to go when we talk about social acceptance and equality among our society constitution of India Safeguard equal rights for everyone what's the first sentence of I our constitution we the people of India when we say we it includes everyone everyone means everyone when my Constitution is so inclusive so inclusive then how can I be exclusive towards someone it's a question to ponder up it's a question to think about when transgender person protection X talk about Dignity of the transgender Community protection of the in the community we can still see lack of Education lack of employment lack of access to healthcare services and so many problems yes I'm talking about lot of problem but while I'm smiling and standing in front of you as I said proud it was possible only because of one thing a equal opportunity of education and support from my family equal opportunity every one of us deserve here be it your transgender beat women beat be Adas be Muslim anyone and it's just that one equal opportunity takes you somewhere new education policy 2020 also talks a lot about diversity and inclusion in school how we can promote diversity and inclusion am among our students or children so that every child feel safe and protected I was forced to hold my pee when I in school because I was scared to go to the toilet I was assigned to the mail toilet for sure I faced bully I faced harassment is the same reason I was forced to hold my PE during my college because there was no toilet for me can you even think how painful it can be that you don't have peace to pee also and peeing is a basic necessity for us for all of us this is where I started the campaign no more holding my pee demanding gender neutral washroom in Higher Education Institute to the government of Assam and the campaign is going on some of the colleges has adopted genda neutral washroom in their campuses but these are small changes and as I said about the Equal Opportunity of Education this is where my whole work of making education accessible to my community and people in general and this is where my work of Free Library stands in I run free community library when I say free it means it welcome everyone equally and it's free of cost and why Free Library today where I'm standing as I said about education also it's reading which made me to think more it's reading because of reading I thought more I started to think more I started to ask question and who IED to ask question and I could start standing for my rights and also for my Community it's a free library which can promote free thinking because within a free library we everyone sits equally we read and we discuss and from that discussion everyone can take a stand I run two free library in Assam and I'm part of free libraries Network Indian South Asia through which we are advocating for people's policy for free library system in India if education is right and schools are free then we need free community library in every corner of our society or of our country because we have to read reading is thinking together we can achieve our society of equality but how it is possible is it a very diff difficult task I don't think so today when we are going away from each other and we don't and this in each other one thing I believe that we don't talk we don't talk to each other we are just sitting and when we don't talk to each other we we don't know what is going in their the other person's mind if we know what is going on the other person's or the other person's story then we will be more empathetic and to understand that I don't think so we don't need to do a lot of things or we need to know so many languages also I have a dream that in our society every one of us should have dignity and that dignity we can have through equal opportunity for everyone and when I talked about understanding everyone and going near to people it will be possible only when we will embrace the language of love so I urge you all to embrace the language of love let's go near more to people and let's have equality among all of us thank you so much for listening [Applause]