India’s 1st Transgender Judge!
At an age of 29, Joyita Mondal became the first judge as she was appointed at Lok Adalat in north Bengal in October 2017.
We had released a video about the different categories within the LQBTQIA+ community. You can have a look at the video to know more about it. Inspite of the laws, almost every transgender person has faced the abusive behaviour in the society. Unlike all of us, a trangender's career path is not simple and straight, as they have to make extra efforts to be accepted. To prove themselves efficient, they have set a record in their respective fields. Let's take a look at successful transgender people who became the first ones to achieve big in their area of interest, be it in academics or politics etc. We will be covering the topic in several parts. In each part we will tell you about 1 transgender person who was first in their fields.
Now 31, Joyita Mondal was born as ‘Joyonto’, a boy in Kolkata. As she was unable to conform to the gender norms that were imposed on her, she then dropped out of school after class X. She was abused, and she suffered a lot of discrimination in her childhood for being transgender. But she didn’t tell her family that she was unable to take the verbal bullying by other boys in her school. She just told her mother I had got a job in Dinajpur, a neighboring district in the state and would come back in two months if things didn’t work out. The mother agreed. She came to Islampur in Dinajpur district and never returned. In the starting couple of years, besides attending functions as a hijra, she strived to work for the rights of trans people.
She had to sleep at a bus stand as hotels did not allow her to take rooms. At the same time, she also somehow managed to complete her studies through correspondence and also got herself a degree in law. In the year 2010, she was the first trans person from her district to get a voter ID. Joyita started her organization Dinajpur Notun Alo Society a few years ago, which is now helping thousands of people
Almost a decade after she left her house in Kolkata, Joyita was roped in as the judge of a Lok Adalat. Talking to The New Indian Express, she said, “All governments want to appoint one person from a weaker community to a top post so that voices of others of the community are muffled. I would not let that happen.
Even if two-three percent of transgenders in Islampur get dignified jobs, I would consider my appointment beneficial for my community. They would not have to work as sex workers for Rs 150–200 and can have a good sleep at night. Even now, as I move around in air-conditioned cars, my people beg during the day and work as sex workers at night.” All this happened to her and she didn’t go into a shell, usually cursing her fate. But today, Joyita Mondal is India’s first transgender judge.
