'All of us have a role in ensuring the transgender a life of dignity'
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, September 27 2011:
31 contestants walk down the aisle contesting for the crown in one of the biggest transgender beauty contest in the state at BOAT on Monday last.Mona Okram of Singjamei Sapam Leikai bagged the Miss Transgender 2011 while H.Ashananda, Thoubal, and Pebam Bonita of Canchipur, took the first and second runners-up position.
The beauty pageant is part of the Solidarity Event organised by All Manipur Nupi-manbi Association (AMANA), Solidarity and Action Against The HIV Infection In India (SAATHII), Manipur, and supported by the Global fund for AIDS, India HIV and AIDS Alliance (GFATM-9).The Solidarity Day is being celebrated in 17 states of India.
Speaking on the occasion N.Ashok Kumar, IAS, Project Director, Manipur State AIDS Control Society (MACS) and chief guest of the event, said that the transgender and MSM community is one of the most misunderstood groups of people in the country.
"The Solidarity Event makes a lot of sense in making people understand their aspirations.
All of us have a role in ensuring them a life of dignity" he said.
Jonathan Ripley, Manager Advocacy and Policy, India HIV & AIDS Alliance, Pankaj Choudhury, NACO-NERO, and Aditya, NACO, New Delhi, were the president and guest of honors of the event respectively.
The Solidarity Event which is aimed at creating a platform to showcase talents and engaging stakeholders in various issues concerning the transgender community is being observed for the first time after Project Pehchan (Identity) was launched in October 2010 in Manipur.
The five-year project is focused on policy advocacy, Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and capacity building of the MSM and transgender community in the state.
Though the Solidarity Event is being celebrated in 17 states of India, it is in Manipur where the community ownership and involvement is best witnessed.
From conceptualisation to execution of the event, AMANA a community-based group of transgender and MSM, has taken the lead.
"It feels so good that the community is taking the lead in addressing issues concerning them and charting their own destiny.
This was unthinkable ten years back or so", said Anupam Hazra, SAATHII, Kolkata.
Project Pehchan is designed to support development of community systems that enable MSM, Hijras and transgender communities access Sexual Reproductive Health and HIV services, reduce their vulnerability, realize their rights to life and health, and achieve overall well being.