Trinetra Haldar Gummaraju, a doctor turned actor and transgender woman, recently made her acting debut with Amazon Prime Video India's Made In Heaven Season 2. In an exclusive interview with Bollywood Hungama, Trinetra spoke about the current state of trans rights in India and her biggest takeaway from Made In Heaven Season 2.
"I feel like in many ways, India is a little more progressive than the West because we don't currently have laws banning trans people from accessing gender-affirming care or participating in different walks of life," she said. "We do have a degree of transphobia. But it is not so widespread in India. For us, it exists as a social attitude, not so much as law. So, that's a good thing."
However, Trinetra also pointed out that there are still many challenges facing trans people in India.
"Trans people in India are one of the least literate populations in the country," she said. "With the vast majority of us relying on begging and sex work, there have been studies that show that over 90 to 95% of trans people face social and familial rejection, and are forced to not live with their families, but away from their families typically in the Hijra Gharana setup."
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Trinetra also spoke about the lack of legal protections for trans people in India. "We don't technically have marriage rights. We don't have adoption rights. We don't have horizontal reservations," she said. "A lot of states don't have a transgender welfare policy and even the states that do, don't implement it very well."
Despite the challenges, Trinetra is optimistic about the future of trans rights in India. "I think we have a long way to go,” she said.
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Speaking of the show, Trinetra's biggest takeaway from it is that anything is possible. She asserted, “A trans person need not feel limited because of who they are. And for the queer and trans people reading this, I just like them to know that never stop dreaming the wildest and crazy ideas because it is that childlike wonder that allows us to do incredible things on this planet. And I think that's something to really hold on to.”
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