'More transgenders should join the media, attitudes must change'

A Coimbatore-based transgender has become a trailblazer for her community becoming the first TV transgender news anchor when she went 'live' on Independence day on a private Tamil satellite channel in Tamil Nadu.

Still reminiscing about the day when she read out her first bulletin on August 15, Padmini Prakash said, "I will be completing two months at Lotus news channel on October 15."

It has been a hard grind for Padmini considering she had to drop out after her first year B.Com course some 15 years ago after her parents disowned her.

She wanted to study for IAS but could not because of the discrimination and stigma she experienced and economic conditions. But such setbacks only made her more determined to succeed, she said.

"You see, I am a professional classical dancer, trained in Bharatanatyam," she said.

Padmini realised very early on that the media was the best way to reach to wide sections of society and to create awareness about the problems of the transgenders, and is happy that she has landed a job as a news anchor.

"It is because a transgender is reading the news that it is creating waves. So I feel more transgenders should come into the media to reach out to more sections of society."

Padmini, who is in her thirties, participated in talk shows and some serials before she caught the attention of Coimbatore-based Lotus representatives who were scouting for a member of her community for their channel. In between, she took part in transgender beauty contests and won the Miss Tamil Nadu and Miss India titles in 2007 and 2009 respectively.

G K S Selvakumar, Chairman of Lotus news channel, said he wanted the transgender community to come up in society.

"So we were scouting...and Rose Venkatesan, who is the first transgender TV show hostess, put us on to Padmini."

"We were impressed by her fluency in Tamil and provided training for her for about two months," he said.

"Look in places like Mumbai, they are treated with respect and provided assistance. But there is so much of discrimination against the community in other places, so I felt some opportunities should be given for them to come up in society," he said.

"Now I am getting enquiries about Padmini from places like US, Germany and Australia."

Impressed by her diction and fluency in Tamil, the channel has entrusted her the task of reading the 7 pm special bulletin daily.

"It is a welcome development for the transgender community," Rose Venkatesn said, adding, it will go a long way in removing misconceptions about the community and treating them as equal members of society.

Asked if it has been a good year for the community especially as the Supreme Court had in April in a landmark verdict recognised the transgender community as the third gender, Rose said the Centre has yet to implement it.

The apex court had directed the Centre and all states to treat them as socially and educationally backward classes to extend reservation in admission in educational institutions and for public appointments. However, the Centre has sought clarification on it.

Asked if her parents had made any enquiries after she became a news anchor, and if she had made attempts to contact them, Padmini said they disowned her many years ago. "They did not accept me and I feel there is no point in disturbing them."

"So many parents have accepted their children as they are, but there are others who have not…attitudes should change," she said.

Padmini has settled down in Coimbatore with her husband and their adopted child, a one-and-half-year boy.

Image: Padmini is the face of the Coimbatore-based Lotus News Channel's daily 7 pm special bulletin