The recent appointment of India’s first transgender college principal in eastern Bengal state is another incremental step towards public acceptance for the country’s small but hugely discriminated against community. India is believed to have more than two million transgender people, the majority of whom live shadowy lives in dire poverty on the fringes of society, socially ostracised because of their gender and abandoned by their families. Known across the country and other neighbouring south Asian countries as “Hijras”, many live in ghettoes and eke out a living by singing and dancing, begging or prostitution. “For me it’s been a long battle against ignorance,” said Manabi Bandyhopadhyay...
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