No Sympathy please : says the First Transgender contestant

-Meet Ms. Ananya…. The first transgender to contest in Kerala elections

Ms. Ananya Kumari Alex of the age 28, is the first transgender person to be a part of the assembly elections in the state. A model, news presenter, anchor, make-up artist, radio jockey and resource person on gender issues. She has overcome a lot of hurdles ever since she came out in 2011.

This move to stand in elections has been a historic step, not only for the transgender community but also for Kerala. The election campaign was challenging for her as some people were not even aware of the existence of the transgender community. When asked about how she would like to change the mind-set of people, she said, “We do not want anyone’s sympathy. What we want is equality. People who have a voice in the society should start to spread awareness about male, female and transgender equality whenever they talk about equality.”

She is representing the Democratic Social Justice Party (DSJP). Her mother’s experience in Vengara where she could not get access to safe drinking water, made her rethink policies that ought to be followed in such cases. This would be the first thing she would fix. The main aim of DSJP is to provide equal opportunities to marginalized communities. This led her to stand for the elections.

Only 290 people have been identified as transgender in Kerala, to which she replied the reason may be the technical issues as well as personal choice of people which is to not identify themselves as transgender.

Her solution to end the crisis which the third gender faces includes giving reservation in PSC vacancies. She also said that government should create a workspace with more people from the transgender community.

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