Dr Yoga Sreelesh Nambiar
Birthplace:
Kannur, Kerala
Residence:
Mumbai, Maharashtra
Qualifications:
Ph.D. in Mental Health and Trained classical dancer
Inspiration:
Mother
EMPOWERING THROUGH POSITIVITY
She is an ardent follower of her guru and tries to make others follow too to demand respect. Her guru – education. India’s first Ph.D. transgender person, Sat Paul Mittal National 2021 awardee and a member of Thane District Grievance Committee 2021, she began with respecting herself.
Her smile is infectious and brings out her inner child. Her friendly and welcoming demeanour radiates positivity. All along her life, she has flatly refused to acknowledge the challenges, and rightly so. This emphasis on choosing what’s empowering is what makes her confident and determined.
She is India’s first transgender person with a Ph.D. in Mental Health and Founder-Director of the Global Rights Foundation (GRF). She is also a social worker, a classical dancer, a feminist and a motivational speaker.
Life is an anecdote
Ask a question and her answer will be a related anecdote. She does not like taking the preachy path. “There was a time when close family members had advised my parents against funding my education. Today, the same people are sending me their children’s resumes.”
She works in Mumbai, a city her family has called home for four generations. “I was born on 9 May 1984 in Kannur where my mother had travelled to just for my birth. I have lived in Mumbai all my life and know its problems well.”
She was her school’s first-ever student to score 85% in class 10 boards. “With a bit of cheating, of course,” she chuckles. That was the beginning of a string of academic successes. “I am thankful to those relatives who had put forth their views on my education. They motivated me to make a statement for myself. I walked into the college wearing a saree, drew an additional box for the third gender in the application form, identified myself as transgender and submitted it. I haven’t looked back since.”
Yoga has no rhetoric, only exemplary work; she wants to be seen as a role model. “I don’t want sympathy. I am highly educated, probably more than many others. That gives me my confidence and attitude. One does not need to scream, shout or weep to win rights and respect. It comes from your contributions and achievements.”
Launchpads to a better future
Every initiative that GRF has undertaken since its establishment in 2012 has social and economic empowerment as its ultimate goal.
“I don’t fight for my rights. I fight for basic rights. I don’t think there is a need to fight for transgender rights. We are all capable enough for ourselves.”
The organisation’s work covers all marginalised groups, from people living with HIV/AIDS, sex workers and their children and the transgender community to migrant workers. GRF is incubated by the Maharashtra Social Housing and Action League (MASHAL), an NGO recognised for its tremendous contribution to the development sector, led by Dr. Yoga.
A Bharatnatyam and Kuchipudi exponent, she is leveraging dance as a tool for empowerment through the Kala Shri Academy of Art & Culture (KSAAC). Proceeds from the academy’s programmes are redirected to GRF towards the upliftment of transgenders.
KSAAC’s Tap For A Cause is a performance programme launched in 2011 to raise funds for orphans and others living with HIV/AIDS in Mumbai and Pune. It also raises funds to support professional dancers, choreographers or related administrators in the transgender community living with HIV in the form of rent, utilities, medical or travel expenses and insurance.
She also launched the Nritya Out of Poverty initiative in association with The International AIDS Association. A multimedia dance theatre for underprivileged children, it trains them in dance under KSAAC besides receiving all-round development fitness, nutrition and audio-video editing. She is the founder of I am Trans Movement 2021 and Atma Samman Skill Development Centre 2021.
GRF’s Lalitha Bhawan Community Kitchen, run by transgender people and female sex workers who have exited the profession, currently feeds 350 migrant daily wagers for free every day. “I want to provide employment opportunities to my sisters and brothers… and help them gain a sense of achievement and purpose by serving migrant workers, sex workers and other marginalised groups during the natural calamities or pandemics like the the COVID-19.”
Her next ambitious initiative is Doosra Ghar (second home), a crisis intervention centre planned in Thane for transgender people wishing to reshape their future. “We are targeting migrant transgender people coming into Mumbai and trying to help them before they get into begging or sex work.” Doosra Ghar proposes to have a helpline, a short-term shelter home, medical counselling, parental counselling, legal counselling, awareness-building activities for educational institutes as well as medical and nutritional support. It will also look at medical services for SRS and HIV awareness and treatments. Dr. Yoga has collaborated with the National Institute of Open Studies to support the education of transgenders who have discontinued studies for various reasons. To be built on one-acre of land, it will have 50 residents to start with, including elderly transgender people.
“I will give youngsters the chance. It’s up to them to capitalise on it. If they want a good life, they will have to work towards it.”
VISION FOR THE TRANSGENDER COMMUNITY
Committing to positively change themselves is what she sees every transgender person doing. “How we present ourselves in society says a lot about us. I want each transgender person to first accept themselves and discard the behaviour that further demeans them. They should empower themselves with education and prove themselves a productive member of society.”
Anyone can do it, it might be difficult but not impossible. “Society made me realise my identity. It was solely up to me to either focus on my goals or get swept away by social, discrimination and harassment. I have experienced unpleasant phases, handled them well and above all, accepted myself. I to date don’t criticise or blame people.”
MESSAGE FOR THE MAINSTREAM SOCIETY
Many years ago, Dr. Yoga was walking to her office when a couple of young men hanging around the street corner made a derogatory pass at her. She could have raised her voice or could have allowed their words to hurt her core. “Instead, I smiled back and jokingly told them that my father too had teased a transgender a year before my birth and see what happened. I can’t describe the look on their faces. Today, they are among GRF’s frontline volunteers.”
She says that just like every man is not a rapist, not every transgender is a beggar, a goon or a sex worker. Society must understand and accepts this fact.
“I am a self-made person. I lost my dad when I was 22. I took care of my family, got my sister married and bought my own house. Don’t see me as a transgender person but as a social worker, a feminist, a hard-working woman, a friend.”
She feels there’s not much to show on the ground following the NALSA case verdict and since the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act of 2019. Policy implementation needs to be fast-tracked. Every police station must form a Transgender Cell similar to a Women’s Cell, to help transgender people in crisis. However, she can’t stop herself from sharing an incident. “A Marwari shopkeeper once shared that he looked forward to Tuesday every week, when transgender people visited his shop to bless him. Now he sees them every day, which means transgender people have become more visible in mainstream society since IPC Section 377 was scrapped.”
FIVE FACTS ABOUT DR. YOGA
She loves reading spiritual books and specially admires Tulsidasa’s Ramayana.
A big fan of all things paneer, paneer tikka tops her list.
Laxmi Narayan Tripathi’s speeches motivates her.
Her role model is Nita Chalke, the President of MASHAL.
Her one bit advise, “Do before you expecting results. If you want to experience heaven, you will have to die first”.
