Author: Amit

Rakhishree, a transgender leader and member of the transgender self-help group Sweekriti, made a firm resolve to fight the pandemic. She started a small business of selling vegetables. Rakhishree has also been assigned the role of a tax collector by the Municipal Corporation.

However, she needed a mask and a sanitiser so that she could keep herself safe while selling vegetables. These items were in short supply due to an increase in demand. With CFAR’s support, Rakhishree and other transgender persons got hygiene kits. The masks and the sanitizers were of immediate help to transgender leaders like Rakhishree who have been stepping out despite the pandemic.

Banki Rani is one of the many migrants, who in search of new opportunities, migrated from Kamakhya Nagar in Dhenkanal district to Bhubaneswar in 2003. She and her family settled in Barabhuja Basti. When their life was just about beginning to look up, suddenly misfortune struck, when her husband met with a fatal accident in 2009. Banki Rani realized that as a single parent of two children and as a sole earning member she has to now soldier on with greater determination and grit.

Shiv Kumar is a 31-year-old differently-abled man, living in Rajeev Nagar Kachhi Basti, Ward 31 for the last 13 years. Shiv and his wife Asha Devi, both have locomotive disability from childhood. The couple with their two children lives in a single-room tin shed house but have a single pit toilet.

Shiv has a tricycle which he also uses to sell items such as tobacco, water bottles, and supari that fetches him Rs. 2000-2500 per month.

We belong to Valmiki caste. We have not constructed IHHLs in our lanes, because the sewer line cannot reach the houses. We are ready to construct the toilet if JMC provides the sewer line. Pregnant women, PWD and elderly are suffering a lot – Deepak – SWF member.

There are elderly, pregnant women, adolescents, and transgender in the community who are unfortunately practicing open defecation. But we are forced to do that as we have no other option or any community toilet complex where we can go. Sunita

Sunder Nagar, a 45 years old settlement on surveyed land in Jaipur. Since the settlement is on the surveyed land, there are a poor and at times no access to basic WASH services. Supply of water is one of the primary issues, the other being the households have insanitary toilets (single pit toilets) with no desludging done for years and there is no sewerage system in the settlement. The number of family members range from five to ten which makes the pits filled with sludge rapidly and at times the pits overflow on to the roads, since the pits are not desludged.

Manisha Samal is an achiever. She lives in the Tapovan basti of Bhubaneswar city with her parents and her brother. She is in the 10th standard and has multiple talents in dancing, singing, performing and the fine arts. But she wanted to do more.

Her abilities came to the fore while working on the issue of menstrual health and hygiene. She emerged as a change agent/ champion of MHM. She disseminated awareness on MHM through her performances in the Nukkad natak, her participation in the poster making competition, in the singing competition and other events. Her parents are proud of her achievements and the laurels she has achieved through her involvement with CFAR working as an adolescent change agent.

When Sweety Fatima today 27 years of age, discovered that, though she had been born a boy she felt psychologically akin to girls, she asked herself, ‘Why should I live like a boy? I feel happier being a girl.’ But her family was livid with her thinking and ordered her not to reveal her desired gender identity and to continue with her pretence, lest they lose the respect and dignity of the others in the community. Sweety Fatima decided to leave home and reached Bhubaneswar in search of her new identity. She was convinced from day one that being a transgender was a blessing and not a shame or a curse.

Akhila Sahoo is orthopedically challenged, with a club feet and lives in Saliasahi (a settlement in Ward 63 of Bhubaneswar city) with his wife and children. He has been an inhabitant of this settlement for the last 35 years.

Riding on his bicycle in spite of his physical limitations, Akhila peddled children’s garments, toys and small kitchen accessories. He literally moved door to door for 10 years to meet the needs of his family. His earnings in a day varied from Rs 500 to Rs 800 because of his toils. His feet was not to cut his abilities.