Summary:
ALLAHABAD: She was in class 9, when one of the teacher of her school locked her in a room and tried to harass her. When she shouted aloud, someone opened door and saved her. But when I told my parents, they started abusing me and limited my movements from then on”, she added.Belonging to Balmiki samaj and that too transgender who was everyday tormented by the family members itself, each day of life was becoming bad to worse.“And then I left home to join the people of my community and in couple of years formed my own ‘toli’ (group) and made sure that none of the transgender, whom we meet would not have to suffer as I had to”, she said.She further said that now that her akhara has given her additional responsibility, she would be making sure that the LGBT community and kinnars are brought back to the mainstream for which she would be opening a school at Delhi only for the kinnar community.“For us decent and religious bahaviour is the foremost criteria for selecting anyone for coronation, irrespective of the fact that the member is a Dalit or not”, said head of the akhara, Achraya Mahamandleshwar Luxmi Narain Tripathi.Besides Puja, the akhara has made Sonia, also from Delhi, as the Mandeleshwar by the Akhara.The two mahants, hailing from Delhi, were coronated with the title on Tuesday midnight at the akhara. When this little girl narrated her suffering to the parents, they restricted her movement from then on.One year later she left the house after suffering routine humiliation, both by the family members and the locals residing in the luxmi Nagar locality of Delhi.Meet Puja (42), the first Dalit kinnar of the country who has been coronated as the Mandelshwar by the Kinnar akhara From the naïve girl who was discarded from family, school friends and locals, Puja has faced the brunt of the society and come a long way in sustaining not only herself but large number of transgender around her.“I was raised as a boy but as years passed by no one told me that there is something wrong in my hormones or that I was a transgender, there was no help only taunts and indecent comments”, said Puja while talking to TOI.“If this was not enough to test my patience, one day a teacher of my school locked me inside a class and tried to molest me, it was my loud cry for help that prompted someone to open the door and save me..