Five years ago, transgender activist Gauri Sawant was among the key petitioners when the Supreme Court recognised transgenders as a third gender.
In a progressive step taken by the state chief electoral officer, Gauri has now been named one of the 12 ‘state icons’ from Maharashtra who have been given the charge of creating awareness among voters to increase the voting percentage.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Gauri shared, “This is a huge responsibility… not only the transgender community, I aim to reach out to every community and convince them of the need to exercise their franchise.”
Born as Ganesh in Pune’s Bhawani Peth area, Gauri lost her mother at a tender age. She started working with sex workers when she left Pune to live in Mumbai. While Gauri doesn’t like to talk about her painful past, she revealed that she was never accepted in her family. However, with her new role as a poll ambassador, she says, “I am happy that my voice will be heard.”
Gauri embraced motherhood in 2001 when she adopted her daughter who was left orphaned after the death of her mother who worked as a sex worker. A graduate from a college in Mumbai, Gauri completed her post graduation through Open University.
As a social worker, Gauri set up a drop-in-center named ‘Nani Ka Ghar’ for the children of sex workers which aims at providing education to them. The children are taken care of by ‘nanis’ who are old transgender women who don’t go out to work but have good experience in caretaking.
Source – IndianWomanBlog
