A member of Miitjyu performs at Capitol Hall. Picture by Suman Tamang

Darjeeling, June 25: Sneered at by society, they had preferred the confines of their own world. But the menace of HIV/AIDS has forced transgender people to come out into the open, seeking acceptance and help.

This, according to NGOs, signals a good start for the society, as well as those who diverge from the normative gender role assigned to them at birth.

“Not that the craving for acceptance was not there earlier. But in recent years the urgency has increased. In the past two years, the number of HIV-infected people in the transgender community in the state has increased from 0.5 per cent to 6.6 per cent. It is time society accepted them as they are and helped them overcome their fear,” said Pranay Shekar Pradhan, the vice-president of Manas Bangla that works with the community in the Darjeeling hills.

“For every transgender we know, there are others we don’t know. They, like the rest of the society, should be made aware of safe sex and HIV/AIDS. If they don’t come out, they will not know about the killer disease and it is society which will ultimately come to harm. It is time we shed our bias.”

While transgender people from the plains — who identify themselves as koti — have been coming out in the open for some time, their counterparts in the hills, known as mati, still face a lot of social stigma.

That things are slowly changing, even in the hills, was evident yesterday.

The community came together at Capitol Hall here for a programme on HIV/AIDS awareness. Many like Sougata Mukherjee were not afraid to disclose their identities. Mukherjee performed an Oddissi titled Ram Vandana to depict the love of Hanuman for Lord Rama.

“In a small hill town like this, where every one is so close-knit and where movement is so closely observed, the programme was quite an achievement,” said Roddur De, a resource person of Manas Bangla.

The event was organised by the NGO in collaboration with its local partner Miitjyu formed in 2006.

Miitjyu has been working on targeted intervention — a project of District Aids Control Centre — since January 2007. “Believe it or not but we are now working with 1,000 odd people who are males having sex with males (MSM),” said Pradhan, who is also the secretary of Miitjyu.

The fear of society is such that only 100 of them are visible transgenders with most of them feeling comfortable in anonymity. “Even among the 100, only about 30 have registered as members of Miitjyu,” said Pradhan.

Family and social acceptance along with safe sex practices are the key issues that these organisations address. However, many of the members to whom The Telegraph spoke maintained that life was difficult.

“Most of us had to drop out of school because of peer pressure and though we have a drop-in centre in Darjeeling, people jeer at us when we go there,” said a member, who did not want his identity to be disclosed.

At a larger level, transgenders from across the country are working towards repealing Section 377 of the IPC, which makes any “unnatural sexual behaviour” a punishable offence.

The good news is that people like Sougata do not mind letting the world now about their sexual preferences. “I faced discrimination from my father and brother from the age of five but this did not deter me from graduating and completing my studies in computers and management,” said Sougata.

But the craving for acceptance was evident. Mo Pani ta Mancha Nai Ho (I am also a Human Being) — a play that was staged yesterday — said it all.