India: Transgender community searches for a new identity

[LostInTime]

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At the VHS auditorium in Chennai on Thursday, Suguna was one of the 35 aravanis receiving a lesson on behaviour. These women had congregated from various parts of Tamil Nadu for the third 'Aravanigal Dinam' (Transgender Day).

Over the past two years the tutorial has quietly covered about 30,000 transsexuals spread in seven districts. The aravanis are advised on how to behave when in the company of those outside their community, even if other people are rude. The ultimate aim is to win them over. The idea took off after a proposal by a meeting of jamaats (a jamaat is a congregation of aravanis) under the initiative of the Tamil Nadu AIDS Initiative-Voluntary Health Services (TAI-VHS) mooted the idea of celebrating Transgender Day on 18 January.