A panel discussion was conducted by Alliance India in Tagore International School, Vasant Vihar on 13 October 2023 with the Breaking Barriers campaign members from both branches of Tagore International School, i.e Vasant Vihar and East Of Kailash.
Mrs Anubhuti is a Project Manager at Alliance India and looking into their new project named SAHAS which focuses on issues faced by the transgender community. Ms Veronica Tyagi, a transgender woman who aspires to be a marine biologist, shared her inspiring and fascinating story as a transgender woman, with the audience. She started working in NGOs to support her education.
She highlighted the issues that the transgender community faces, for example unavailability of transgender friendly washrooms, surgeries that can be very risky, lack of money and support, side effects of hormone therapy, decreased immunity, increased risk of HIV-AIDS, pills that they have to take throughout their lifetime in order to avoid hormonal imbalance and social stigmas as people consider being trans as irreligious, unethical, or unnatural. She recalled personal instances of ragging and name calling. Where sensitization is concerned, she commented that the discrimination was caused by lack of awareness among people, not only of society as a whole but also of our own parents. Hence, ways to bring about an inclusive change were discussed, among which were transgender friendly restrooms , the use of social media, myth busting reels, and more.
