India Hails First Transgender Newsreader

By Dean Nelson, The Telegraph, September 22, 2014 – http://tinyurl.com/ngpvbgx

A 31-year-old transgender woman who was abandoned by her family at 15 has been hired to anchor an Indian television channel’s headline news show after winning plaudits for her broadcasting style.

Padmini Prakash, a former actor and social activist, made her debut as a newsreader last month, just five months after a landmark Supreme Court ruling recognised transgender people as India’s third sex.

Her appointment as anchor on Lotus TV’s 7pm news program marks a significant advance for transgender people, who are more commonly associated with aggressive begging in the towns and cities of the Indian subcontinent.

India’s transgenders include those who feel they were born into the wrong sex, men born with deformed genitals and effeminate boys disowned by their families and sent to live in eunuch colonies.

Usually known as “hijras” and eunuchs, they are often rejected by their families and earn their living by aggressive begging – harassing wedding parties, families of newborn male babies and unchaperoned lovers in public parks.

In April, a Supreme Court ruling acknowledged the discrimination they suffer and confirmed transgenders would be eligible for reserved government jobs and college places.

Padmini Prakash is not a eunuch – a man who has been castrated – her friends said, but was shunned by her family after she told them she was a transgender when she was 15 years old. She later worked as a dancer, an actor and a campaigner against the discrimination suffered by India’s third sex.

In an interview with the Times of India she said she had been daunted by her new role and anxious to connect clearly with viewers.

“I was very worried because I also had to focus on my diction and maintain a steady narrative pace to ensure that there was clarity and viewers could understand me,” she said.

Lotus TV chairman GKS Selvakumar said Ms Prakash had overcome many hurdles, including being shunned by her family after she told them of her sexual orientation.

“She’s an exceptionally talented person. She is professional dancer and good learner. She was shunned by her family and struggled a lot to survive,” he said.

Audience reaction to Ms Prakash has been so positive that the channel plans to hire more transgenders, he added.