Satyashri Sharmila
Birthplace:
Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu
Residence:
Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Qualification:
LL.B.
Inspiration:
Sharmila Maa
A BRAVEHEART CREATING LEGAL HISTORY
The strong prey on the weak, she knew this at a rather early age. Society ensured she was weak but it was this very society that ensured she strengthened herself. She fights to never let other weak ones be preyed upon. The story of India’s first transgender lawyer…
Satyashri was still young when her father started taking out his rage on him. He had a reason. On 4 July 1982, he became a father to a boy growing up with feminine mannerisms. The neighbours couldn’t stop nagging the parents for their effeminate child. Unknown to the rage and discomfort being created, the child was happy at home, dressing like a girl, playing girls’ games and making friends with girls. Her parents often tried to cure her, she, however, remained pretty clueless. Her confusion over the sudden rage increased. At age seven, her father terribly thrashed her and thereon, it never stopped at home and eventually took a mental toll on the child. “I would often wonder what wrong was I doing,” she shares.
School too was a tough place: teachers would mistreat her, and peers would tease her. “Nobody wanted to play with me. I was lonely.” In her efforts to find her answers, she came across a kinner group and started to interact with them. She was just 10 and was feeling comfortable not at home but with this group of people.
Emotions of variety
College time was fun! She had a huge group of cisgender friends who made her things happy and easy for her and became her backbone. “A professor tried harassing me during a cultural event and my friends all got together to admonish him. “We still meet at least once a year. Life is all about the right balance between good and bad people,” Satyashri quotes. After graduating in Arts, she decided to study law at the Central Law College in Selam. While her friends stood by her, her family didn’t. Constant apathy from her family forced her to escape to Mumbai in 2005 and she joined the transgender community – her friends, however, didn’t appreciate her move. One of them paid her examination fees to encourage her to complete her studies. Her guru, Sharmila Maa, and other members of the community also encouraged her to complete her education.
Her parents contacted her again in 2018 when they got to know that she was still alive when some local media started spreading the news of her achievements. “It was a happy moment. My father, that day, said, ‘It hurt me know you are a transwoman, it hurt me when you ran away from home; yet it all washes away and fills me with pride to know you have gained a respectable position in society on your own’; however, my mother, not much educated, could never stop ruing over my identity and so I don’t talk to her much. My brothers, all successful, are all too caring and loving; in fact, my younger brother too is a lawyer and we gel over our profession.”
However, she had to face a lot of rejection before tasting success. Satyashri applied for jobs in various sectors of government or private associations after achieving a law degree in 2007, but her gender identity became a hindrance. “Even the security person shoved me away. Helpless, I went to my guru in Kamathipura from the community. It was an awful feeling as she too begged for alms and I was living off her. I too gave in to sex work and begging.”
Instead of giving her money or things to eat, people suggested she work if she was absolutely healthy. “But were these people offering me jobs? As many places as I had tried until now, I came back dejected. And living among the community, I realised this wasn’t something that every transgender person faced.” She decided to use her qualifications to help the community against the injustices. But how?
With a firm foot forward
Here was Satyashri searching for jobs in times when transgender people didn’t even have any identity proof. “I once tried getting a voter ID card but was made fun of in the electoral office. When I finally did find a job, it was with an NGO – not in any law firm for my degrees – I had to agree to a Rs. 1500 salary even as a law graduate.” She, however, took the opportunity to sensitise government officials and finally formed her CBO, Darpan Foundation, which she started with the help of her guru. She started visiting banks, hospitals and election departments to create awareness. In 2010, she collaborated with the Mumbai District AIDS Control Society (MDACS), which provided her with funds as well as staff. At times, she had to give in to illegal means to crack her way through – Darpan now has over 1000 members and works across India. “It was my luck that I got guidance from Laxmi Maa and Abhina Aher.”
After the NALSA judgment in 2014, she wrote a letter to the Bar Council of India to help her to enrol as a transgender person, but her plea was overheard. Then she met the chief secretary of the Tamil Nadu Bar Council in 2017 – the first-ever transgender person who sought to. On 30 June 2018, she finally was able to – the first-ever transgender person and the first transgender woman lawyer in India. With her enrolment, a different column was created for transgender people in the bar. “Well, I still face difficulties as rarely do people appoint me for their cases. How could they, after years and years of mistreating the community accept a transgender person be their lawyer? Also, I had started later than my colleagues. So, I still lag by years but I know I’ll make a mark before I leave the world.”
VISION FOR THE TRANSGENDER COMMUNITY
“Every minority community should have a reservation to develop and be useful to society,” she believes. Reservation in educational institutes and the job sector to gain a respectable place in society soon is the community’s foremost requirement.
In her opinion, the current Modi government has done a pretty decent job by bringing up the laws in their favour. The government has also included her community in their policies. The Department of Social Welfare is also quite efficient on the state as well as the national level. “It is the implementation that needs work. The lack of awareness among government officials makes it difficult for the community to access the facilities provided.”
MESSAGE FOR THE MAINSTREAM SOCIETY
There is a lack of awareness and sensitivity toward the transgender community in society. Society still has a stigma and is discriminating against them every day. In public transport, at times people push them to avoid them getting on the mode; at times, seats next to us remain unoccupied even in case of overcrowding. “Awareness and acceptance: two things we seek from society. Recently, the airport staff did their best to help me but they didn’t know how to address me – they referred to me as sir.”
All of it begins in childhood with parents accepting their transgender kids and educating their cisgender kids about the community, from where the entire society can change. Next to parents, says Satyashri, it is schools and teachers who can sensitise people.
“We understand it takes a lot to change a century-old mindset, and we’ll continue to prove our worth at every opportunity. Just let us have these opportunities.”
FIVE FACTS ABOUT SATYASHRI
Her strength is in her confidence.
Society is her weakness.
She loves cooking – for herself and the people around her.
She loves to feed others.
She loves to have Tamil fish curry and curried meat.
