The community has been holding its own Ardhanarishwar Durga Puja in Kolkata for the past six years
The transgender community in Kolkata is upset that for the second consecutive year its Durga Puja in the city did not receive the West Bengal government’s grant that was given to puja committees across the State.
The community has been holding its own puja - Ardhanarishwar Durga Puja - in Kolkata for six years now. For the first three years, it was held at the offices of the Association of Transgender/Hijra on Gokhale Road, under the banner of Gokhale Road Bandhan, but in 2021 the venue shifted to a Central government-built shelter in Mukundapur. That was the only time they received the State government grant.
“For the past two years, we have diligently appealed for the donation, a privilege extended to the people of our State. Regrettably, we find ourselves excluded from this opportunity, which has left us deeply disheartened. We believe that the allocation of funds has been disproportionately allocated, with preference given to prominent clubs,” Ranjita Sinha, director of the Association of Transgender/Hijra, wrote in a letter to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
“We implore you to consider that you are the esteemed representative and Chief Minister of all the citizens within our State, including those who, like us, come from marginalised and underprivileged backgrounds. The prevailing sentiment of discrimination and difficulty securing an audience with you has deeply disheartened us,” Ms. Sinha wrote.
The community had planned to hold a protest during the Durga Puja Carnival scheduled for Friday evening but according to Ms. Sinha, she was visited on Thursday evening by a police sub-inspector who told her that the police department was “deliberating” on their matter (since it is the concerned police station that hands out the cheques to individual puja committees) and cautioned them against holding a protest.
Last year, the police had said that the cheque could not be handed over for technical reasons because the venue of the community’s Durga Puja could not be located since it had shifted from the limits of one police station to another - a claim rubbished by Ms. Sinha who said that their puja was too prominent to be missed considering it was being visited by foreign dignitaries.
“As members of a disadvantaged community, we firmly believe that the Durga Puja donation is an essential source of support for us. Our primary objective is not to confront our State government but to seek development and empowerment for the transgender community to which we belong,” Ms. Sinha wrote in her letter to the CM.
It was in 2018 that the State government started giving financial assistance to Durga Puja committees - totalling to nearly 30,000 - across West Bengal. The amount, ₹10,000 per committee at the time, was increased to ₹70,000 this year.
