Category: Insight | Page 5

This photograph shows the Sip N Bite team members along with their parents (mothers), mentors and well-wishers. There are about 25 individuals standing together for a group photograph on a stage. People are smiling cheerfully at the camera and most of them have their right hand raised in a victory sign. The core Sip N Bite team is in the centre, many members in bright yellow t-shirts. They are flanked on the two sides by the others. Photo courtesy Transcendent Knowledge Society

Insight, Thought for Food Feb '20

Hope makes a good breakfast. Sip N Bite does it better

By Duncan Rice

Duncan Rice is bowled over by the breakfast and motivation served up at café Sip N Bite

This photograph is representative in nature. It shows a poster from the 'Kolkata Rainbow Pride Walk 2017'. The poster text says: “Respect existence or expect resistance”. The photograph is a close-up shot of the poster, and the only other elements visible are the hand of the person holding the poster on the top edge, and some individuals out of focus in the background. Photo credit: Kaushik Gupta.

Insight Aug '19

Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019: Time for a legal challenge?

By Diksha Sanyal

Diksha Sanyal examines the constitutionality of a Bill which the Centre is keen to enact

This illustration is a collage of English newspaper and webzine headlines published in Assam on the issue of the updating of the National Register of Citizens and how the updating process has failed to include trans individuals in the state in the citizenship list. Some of the headlines read ‘503 Transgender People in Assam Voter List’, ‘Determination of Citizenship through Lineage in the Assam NRC Is Inherently Exclusionary’, ‘NRC Assam: No State for Transgender Persons?’, ‘Assam NRC Draft – SC May Take Up Plea of Transgenders on Aug 16’ and ‘Gender, Address Dilemma for Assam’s Third Sex in Draft NRC’. Among the publications represented in the collage are ‘The Telegraph’, ‘Newslaundry’, ‘The Times of India’ and ‘Hindustan Times’. Collage credit: Pawan Dhall, Shivalal Gautam

Insight, VCR Diary Jul '19

Multi-layered exclusions for trans persons in Assam NRC process

By Shivalal Gautam

Look at the NRC exercise from trans persons’ points of view, urges Shivalal Gautam

Insight Jun '19

‘Bees saal baad . . .’

By 'Friendship Walk 20th Anniversary' organizing team

Text from pamphlet for 20th anniversary observations of ‘Friendship Walk ‘99’

This illustration is a photo-quote. The photograph shows Chinju Ashwathi, who contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls form the Ernakulam constituency in Kerala. The photograph is an outdoor and daytime one. Chinju Ashwathi, smiling brightly and looking at the camera, is standing in a narrow lane that has tall plants on one side and a low wall and houses on the other. The camera focus is on Chinju Ashwathi’s face while all other elements in the photograph are diffused. The accompanying quote says: “Born intersex, but assigned female at birth, Chinju Ashwathi lived the life of a woman for 22 years before embracing their identity. An active worker with Sahayatrika, an NGO for human rights based in Kerala, Chinju Ashwathi strongly argues: ‘Unless we are part of the political power system, we will fail to achieve progress and rights for our communities.’” Photo courtesy ‘Keyboard Journal’

Insight May '19

How queer were my elections?

By Koyel Khan

Koyel Khan assesses the ‘queer quotient’ of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls

This illustration is a combination of a photograph and quote. The photograph is a day time close shot of trans activist and first-time actor Sudeb, the focus of the accompanying article. Sudeb is wearing an attractive saree in shades of green, has light make up on and coiffed hair, and is standing on a balcony at the shooting location of a Bengali short film titled ‘Goodbye Beautiful’. This film is also the subject matter of the accompanying article. Sudeb has her right elbow on the balcony railing with the left hand placed lightly on the right forearm. She has a gentle smile as she looks on at the camera. The accompanying quote says: “In a way, all our lives are acting, isn’t it? Especially for queer people and trans men and trans women. What I am and what I have to do to survive have never been the same. I have often acted out a male role, performed the male gender required from me by family, employers, society. So, in a way I think I had the acting skills already. But it has been a new experience to ‘act’ on camera, to a film script.” Photo credit: Pawan Dhall

Cinemascope, Insight Apr '19

All the world’s a stage, and an act

By Jia Mata

Jia Mata on a new short film that does not tick all the gender boxes in a conventional way

This illustration shows the cover page of the report of a consultation on intersex issues described in the accompanying article. The consultation was an historic seminar on intersex persons’ issues in India. It was organized by NGO Solidarity Foundation and the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in Bangalore on October 23, 2017. The text on the cover page carries the report title (“What if It Is Neither?”) on the top. The names of the consultation organizers mentioned earlier, their respective logos and the consultation dateline (October 2017) are mentioned. The name of supporting organization Heinrich Boll Stiftung India is also mentioned. Cover page design credit: Solidarity Foundation

Insight Feb '19

What if it’s neither?

By Koyel Khan

Koyel Khan sums up the report of an historic meet on intersex issues in India

Insight, Thought for Food Jan '19

For that mental connect over cake and coffee

By Jia Mata

Jia Mata was at café Crust & Core to start off our new column 'Thought for Food'

This illustration is a combination of a graphic and an extract from the article. The left half of the illustration panel shows the cover page of the transgender+ workplace inclusion guidelines developed by Orinam and Diversity Dialogues ‘Supporting Gender Affirmation: Towards Transgender+ Inclusive Workplaces in India’. With a simple but striking design, the cover page carries the guidelines title in bold, all-capitals text in the centre but with the text aligned to the left. The background of the text is split into two horizontal halves – the upper half blue in colour and the lower pink. There is a white bar on top of the blue half, which carries the logos of Diversity Dialogues (left side of the page) and Orinam (right side of the page). The extracted text, in the right half of the illustration panel, says: “The guidelines were dedicated to the memory of Anannya Krishnan, a trans woman who was part of the Orinam collective. Despite a promising career as a pharmacologist in the drug safety vertical of a Chennai business, she faced numerous struggles to find a place to live and have her family acknowledge her gender identity. She committed suicide on December 30, 2017.” Cover page design credit: Diversity Dialogues and Orinam.

Happenings, Insight Dec '18

Diversity Dialogues, Orinam raise bar for trans inclusion in workplaces

By Brindaalakshmi K.

Brindaalakshmi K. on the recent launch of a trans inclusion guide for Indian workplaces

This artwork image is borrowed from the cover page of a summary of the Supreme Court’s Section 377 verdict – the summary titled ‘Right to Love – Navtej Singh Johar V. Union of India: A Transformative Constitution and the Rights of LGBT Persons’ was published by Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore with inputs from queer activists across India in September 2018. The image shows a graphic of two hands held together in a friendly handshake grip. It could also be seen as any two lovers holding hands. One of the hands is coloured in the queer pride rainbow flag shades, while the other is white in colour. The outline of the two hands together is shaped like a love sign. In a sense, the graphic colours could also be interpreted as a friendly handshake between a queer person (symbolized by the rainbow coloured hand) and the State (symbolized by the white hand). The graphic is placed on a yellowish background. Artwork credit: Alternative Law Forum

Insight Nov '18

Will the Section 377 verdict live up to its full potential?

By Brindaalakshmi K.

Brindaalakshmi K. on what the Section 377 verdict means to people assigned gender female at birth

Creations, Insight, Travel Travel Oct '18

Many intimacies, many improvisations

By Marc Ohrem-Leclef

Marc Ohrem-Leclef’s 'Jugaad – Of Intimacy and Love' is a visual arts portrayal of male-to-male intimacy

This graphic shows a stylized black and white pencil doodle sketch on paper. It shows the facial side profiles of two gender indeterminate individuals looking closely at each other, their eyes locked in a steady gaze, lips not far apart, noses drawn as inverted sevens touching each other, and a heart symbol placed between their foreheads with the curved part of the heart highlighted as the number three. Both individuals have ear tops shaped with different symbols of sexual orientation and gender identity. In effect, the sketch symbolizes Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code and celebrates its reading down by the Supreme Court on September 6, 2018. Right above the sketch is a line that says “Love knows no gender”. The sketch has been modified with Adobe Photoshop filters in such a way that the right half of the sketch is shaded in grey and the left half in white. The two colours roughly overlap with patches of grey on white and vice versa, and flow into each other diagonally towards the centre of the sketch. The rectangular shape of the sketch has a rainbow coloured outline. This graphic is a throwback to a doodle protest campaign launched by ‘Varta’ webzine on the first anniversary of the apex court’s 11.12.13 verdict on Section 377. The doodles were published in the December 2014 issue of ‘Varta’. Graphic credit: Debjyoti Ghosh

Insight Sep '18

When the Constitution came out in flaming rainbow colours!

By Debjyoti Ghosh

Debjyoti Ghosh on Section 377 finally being read out of queer lives in India

This visual is a collection of six photographs that show different scenes from the symposium ‘Queering Mental Health’ organized at Seva Kendra Calcutta Training Centre on August 4, 2018 as ‘Varta’ webzine’s fifth birthday event. The photographs are placed in a grid. Clockwise from top left: Varta literature on display at the symposium; panellists Sudha Jha and Kaushik Gupta; audience interaction during the symposium – a young woman asks a question as other participants look on; panellists Dr. Madhurima Ghosh, Shilpi Banerjee, Shampa Sengupta and Mohit Ranadip; panellists Dr. Chilka, Dr. L. Ramakrishnan, Rituparna Borah and Sayan Bhattacharya; and ‘Varta’ birthday cake – a heart shaped cake with red gleaming icing all over, a “Happy Birthday” plastic prop placed on the top surface, and Varta’s name and a smiley drawn out in yellow icing just below the prop. The photograph of the cake takes up maximum space in the grid, with other equal sized photographs placed above it and to its right. Photo credits: Jia Mata (first two and the last photograph) and Kaushik Gupta (remaining photographs).

Happenings, Insight Aug '18

Symposium on queering mental health

By Jia Mata

Jia Mata was at 'Varta’s' 5th birthday event focussed on queer perspectives on mental health

This photograph is a daytime long shot of three mobile bio toilet units installed on the Indo-Myanmar Road in Imphal city, Manipur. A fourth unit is also there for maintenance and equipment storage purpose. The toilets are gender neutral and don’t have any gender marker. A piece of paper that simply says “Toilet” is stuck on the outer wall of the toilet closest to the camera. The toilets are installed along the pavement running on the Kangla Fort side of the road, and are positioned to face the pavement. Single step iron stools are placed on the pavement to help people enter the toilets. The materials used for the structure of the toilets seem to be mainly steel and plastic. The toilets have a portable septic tank and a water reservoir on the top. Specific bacteria in the septic tank help to convert human waste into an odourless liquid that can be removed safely using a special machine, and then recycled for irrigation in gardens. The toilets don’t need any sewage connection. In the picture, all the toilet doors are closed, while the storage unit’s door is open. A large blue plastic bucket can be seen inside. A similar bucket is also kept outside on the pavement. It’s a rainy day and the road and pavement are wet; there is water accumulated next to the pavement. Some distance away from the toilets are two women seated on plastic chairs under a large stationary umbrella. A man has also taken shelter under the umbrella with a large sack placed on the ground and is talking on a mobile phone. In the background, traffic on the road, people walking on the pavement, and several trees planted along the pavement can be seen. Photo credit: Bonita Pebam

Insight, Manipur Diary Jul '18

Trans inclusive public sanitation in Manipur needs a bigger push

By Bonita Pebam

Bonita Pebam on where the transgender inclusive public sanitation efforts have reached in Manipur

This photograph is an indoor shot of Anurag Maitrayee standing next to a sideboard in one corner of a room. To her right is a French window, while the sideboard on the left is decorated with a metallic bust of Buddha and a flower vase. She is dressed in a saree, full-sleeved blouse and accessories, and has a large handbag on her right forearm. The photograph is accompanied with a quote from Anurag Maitrayee extracted from the article: “I plan to have programming in ‘LGBT Online’ that will engage queer individuals in speaking about larger social issues, be it politics or the economy. Why the pigeonholing that one comes across all the time? People may be well intended, but why are they surprised to see me in a procession on political issues? Can’t transgender people have an interest or stake in issues other than their gender identity?” Photo courtesy Anurag Maitrayee

Insight Jun '18

Queer and Bengali on YouTube

By Pawan Dhall

Anurag Maitrayee tells Pawan Dhall about 'LGBT Online', YouTube’s first Bengali talk show from India on queer issues

In this photograph, a midday event is taking place on the pavement outside Kamala Girls’ High School in South Kolkata on March 19, 2018 to protest the incidents in the school and the West Bengal Education Minister’s comments on the matter. A street play is in progress. The main actor dressed in a ‘kurta’, pair of jeans, slippers and a ‘dupatta’ can be seen holding a tambourine in their hands and addressing the audience. About a dozen people, standing around at some distance from the actor, are watching. To the right of the photograph, facing the actor, are two individuals holding a placard in part Bengali, part English: “Samakami aami, bhalobasha aami. Shame Education Minister!” (So what if I’m homosexual, my love has meaning. Shame Education Minister!). Behind the placard holders is the school building and a part of the closed school gate can also be seen. The name of the school is written on an arched board above the gate. In the forefront, the photograph shows someone holding a mobile phone and recording a video of the play. Large trees, school buses, people sitting on platforms under the trees, and a building adjacent to the school make up the background. Photo credit: Pawan Dhall

Insight May '18

To school, with fear . . . of confessions!

By Jia Mata, Sudha Jha, Nikita Kabra

Jia Mata, Nikita Kabra and Sudha Jha report on the recent homophobic violation of child rights in the Kamala Girls' High School incident involving the school's headmistress and the West...

Tagged Under: Insight

Hope makes a good breakfast. Sip N Bite does it better

Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019: Time for a legal challenge?

Multi-layered exclusions for trans persons in Assam NRC process

‘Bees saal baad . . .’

How queer were my elections?

All the world’s a stage, and an act

What if it’s neither?

For that mental connect over cake and coffee

Diversity Dialogues, Orinam raise bar for trans inclusion in workplaces

Will the Section 377 verdict live up to its full potential?

Many intimacies, many improvisations

When the Constitution came out in flaming rainbow colours!

Symposium on queering mental health

Trans inclusive public sanitation in Manipur needs a bigger push

Queer and Bengali on YouTube

To school, with fear . . . of confessions!

Queer Friendly Resources

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