Kumar Shetty
Birthplace:
Mumbai, Maharashtra
Residence:
Mumbai, Maharashtra
Qualification:
Class 12
Inspiration:
Zainab Patel and Gauri Sawant
A RAY OF HOPE
She is the President of Gaurav, a Mumbai-based CBO that works for the upliftment of sex workers. Her hardships couldn’t deter her from rising. Today, she is an inspiration for the transgender community with her children serving in different fields such as the movie industry, medicine and Ph.D.
Kumar Shetty has been working for the health and rights of the transgender community for the last 20 years because she believes in the worth of community support.
Born in 1980, she loved dancing to Bollywood queens Madhuri Dixit and Sridevi’s songs and wearing her mother’s sarees. All these experiences seemed very normal to her as she was just a child back then. One nightmare that she cannot shake off even today is being raped by her uncle when she was 10 years old. After this brutal experience, she confided in her mother for support who assured her that things would be investigated, but her father was a narrow-minded man who instead blamed Shetty for the incident. She was beaten up by her father and had to bear the blame for inviting such a situation with her inappropriate behaviour.
Disappointed and disheartened with this terrible incident Shetty decided to run away from home with a transgender person while she was studying in class 8. She adopted their lifestyle and started begging. She was soon brought back home by her family and sent off abroad for further studies.
She came back to India to continue her studies. She was 18 when she met activist Ashok Row Kavi at the Gateway of India, Mumbai, “Amma (Ashok Row Kavi) introduced me to Humsafar Trust and invited me to visit them. People were yet not open about queer and transgender communities. Watching others making something out of their lives made me confident. Zainab Patel and Gauri Sawant, my gurus, have inspired my work and journey. Working and associating with her is an honour. After finishing high school and training, I joined as an outreach and field worker. Due to police brutality risks, I’d often have to mask my identity. However, when required, I would hold up to my pride.”
Action speaks louder than words
Through the trust, she has been able to provide healthcare services to sex workers and raise awareness of the rights of LGBTQ+ community.
Later in 2010, she started a CBO, Gaurav, and built it up from scratch, beginning with a strong team. It mainly focuses on sex workers. In 2009, a Delhi High Court bench decided to strike down Section 377. This paved the way for channelling efforts towards the transgender community. It is an inclusive and representative organisation of which leaders of the community – Zainab Patel, Aryan Pasha and Laxmi Narayan Tripathi – are among the nine board members.
In 2013, the Supreme Court overturned the July 2009 ruling by the Delhi High Court and in September 2018, the Section was finally ruled unconstitutional. Until then Gaurav shifted its focus to smaller cities like Aurangabad, Nagpur and Bhiwandi. The smaller cities have a huge transgender community mostly lacking awareness of health services and their rights. The disparity between rural and urban India opened a new avenue for the team at Gaurav to reach out to a larger transgender population.
Gaurav works on the mental health issues of the community members through counselling and training. Financial literacy is crucial for the transgender community due to the dearth of socio-economic security, pushing them towards depression and trauma. Shetty envisions addressing and educating the community about savings, investments, expenses and securing their future.
Change is possible
She shares that the 2014 NALSA verdict was graciously welcomed as it gave the transgender community their own official identity as the third gender. The Supreme Court also gave the historic verdict on decriminalizing Section 377 in 2018.
Shetty is blatant and bold, never fearing speaking her mind out. She believes that there has been some progress towards uplifting the transgender community but at a snail’s pace. It’s been two years since the formation of a government representative body for transgenders in Maharashtra but not a single policy has been enacted upon yet.
“Our community is 12% more likely to get affected with HIV and opportunistic infections (OIs). But enough is not being done to curb this rate. The necessary treatment and facilities are missing,” she shares. The problem is very much real and widespread. Due to the NALSA movement, successful tracking is now being done, antiretroviral therapy (ART) is being administered but the basic problem of getting a bed at a hospital persists. To which ward they need to be admitted still poses a problem. Female wards are not easily available, in that case, they are shifted to the male wards. They are subjected to medical examination and scrutiny before admission which delays their treatment and increases their harassment.
Shetty along with her community is working day in and day out for the betterment of the transgender community but for her efforts to bear fruit, she expects society and the government to come together in this and accept them as normal people.
Family as a supportive unit
She appeals to the families of the transgender persons to be more considerate and affectionate, after all, they are related by blood, and they already have a difficult time fighting for their dignity. A supportive family will provide them with the strength and courage to face the world. She looks emotionally vulnerable while talking about her strained relationship with her father, yet she considers herself blessed to have the support of her mother and the community.
She shares with grief that her close friend, infected with HIV, breathed her last on her lap. Shetty stood by the side of her friend’s family and helped them to marry off her friend’s sister. She considers this moment to be the happiest. “I have been there for her family in every possible way. Her younger sister loves and respects me. This is more than enough.”
One of her close friends, a sex worker, had an abusive partner. They had worked together in the past. When her daughter was getting married, Shetty arranged for the walima (gathering at a marriage procession) amount and ensured that their traditions were followed. She is proud to have helped someone, which she believes will never get a chance to do for her own family.
Society might not have accepted her with open arms, but the feelings are not mutual. Kumar Shetty distributed ration during the COVID-19 pandemic and donated a lot to the needy and participated in various activities to help the people during the lockdown.
The journey is long, and the path is full of hardship, but Shetty has dreams for her community yet to be fulfilled.
VISION FOR THE TRANSGENDER COMMUNITY
She envisions an inclusive society where transgender people get access to employment, education and healthcare.
Shetty is aware that the transgender community is deprived of the rights that other legal couples have, like adoption, buying property, health insurance, opening bank accounts and pension. So, she is working for the legal recognition of same-sex marriage in India. This will help secure their rights and provide them with social and cultural acceptance of which they are currently deprived of.
She dreams of owning land and starting organic farming with her community. She envisions creating transgender entrepreneurs. She wants transgender people to move beyond salons and cafes and enter every work field to prove their worth.
MESSAGE FOR THE MAINSTREAM SOCIETY
With a heavy heart, she shares that society has not completely accepted her for who she is. She blatantly exposes the hypocrisy of society when people meet her and talk to her in private but refuse to share the same space with her socially and publicly. She appeals to the people to be true to her face, either accept her completely or not at all. Her message to society is, “Give respect and take respect.” She just asks for a chance for the transgender community so that they too can prove their worth to the world.
FIVE FACTS ABOUT KUMAR
She loves travelling and has covered all parts of India, Europe and Bangkok.
She loves to dance.
She enjoys soirees with her friends and family from the community.
Her cooking is famous in her circle; her friends and children visit her often for her biryani, yakhni pulao.
She dreams BIG: of starting organic farming and encouraging entrepreneurial activities in the community.
