Transforming Vision Into Action: Transmogrification – by Mayaa SH

Trans is a word associated with Transformation, Translucent, Transitory, Transcultural, Translation, then why be held at an oversimplified idea or a notion of a disbelief of acceptance. The mortal wellbeing of our existential preference is a matter of choice not just luck or chance. Even if we consider ourselves lucky to accentuate our positives by valuing the mere fact that we are born into this beautiful world to something worthwhile, we have to come to accept to value the gift of life in its purest form. This also magnifies our binary understanding of duality of belonging to actuality alongside what is our purpose of coexistence. The cognitive thought process can be supressed for a stipulated time period while the amygdala can control conscious thoughts, however, the sole belief of a disbelief that we are meant to ascertain our life on terms decided by societal barriers is not always the way forward and true. What is repugnant to us? The association or the dissociation towards those who decided to transition or the fractional compartmentalisation of our own thoughts at times difficult to process.

Living a life that is gifted by God yet devoid of the basics of the most humane civility of gratitude, conduct and kindness is a gentle levity at the progression and overall health of a civic society that thrives to champion hope in despair. Yet the normality of the ascension to a path of liberation in thoughts and ideas first is just a hoary old cliché for many. Those who have to live in the dark shadows of the first ray of the Sun –The Sun that shines across the world to illuminate the path for all unequivocally and unnerved to favour warmth and care for all.

It is time to build resilience with effective collaboration to be inclusive to a modern viewpoint of not being potentially politically correct always. This can be looked at leveraging investments in the longer run for long term and sustainable goals meant to uplift all at the same level in a civic society. Applying an integrated approach to build health systems and multisectoral establishment, engagement and participation are interconnected roles and responsibility of all stakeholders for effective strategies and implementation. This also supports intersectoral actions for health, and can ensure population-based health services (such as mass vaccination, contact tracing, risk communication, health education) are delivered and maintained, along with individual-based clinical care which usually gain more attention and investment in health systems.

If we talk about the social exclusion of the transgender community, it happens at different levels. They are initially pushed out of the family due to social pressures and established taboos when their gender identity is revealed. Along with this, they are also denied basic facilities like education, health and access to public places. To cope with the pressure created by the discrimination they face. As a society, we must understand that being transgender is as normal as being a boy or a girl. It should be our effort that we also give the same respect to the people coming from the transgender community, which they deserve, but are deprived of it till date.

What kind of mental challenges does the transgender community face? How can they get out of this and what else can be done in this direction? It is true that transgender is a marginalized community with very little access to health facilities. The people of the transgender community are often themselves so entangled in their gender mismatch and on that their unacceptable in the society leads this community to a lot of mental illnesses. Is it not our social and civic responsibility to gather perspectives of being mentally sound ourselves to view all with respect to talent and capabilities and not a rigid mindset that is not progressive enough to allow many the submission to live a life of dignity.  A transgender suffers from mental pressure at every stage of his/her childhood till age. In my view, people in this community should continue to receive health services and other aide in a respectful manner at all levels. They are not needy and looking for sympathy but for allowing them to live with dignity and grace. For their better mental health, it is necessary to have belongingness in the family, in the society, in the job and in taking advantage of health facilities. All of them will have to be sensitive to this community, only then the picture of a happy society will be complete.

The gender continuum is a diagnostic tool required to assess and achieve gender equality. Humanitarian interventions are much needed to design, for implementation, monitoring and evaluation of an effective and a robust mechanism towards a culture that deeply values and acknowledges gender discrimination still prevalent in modern times. A gender responsive approach can help identify and address various issues with respect to health and for promotion of equal outcomes for all.  A gender transformative approach explicitly seeks to redress gender inequalities, remove structural barriers and empower disadvantaged population associated with a fear of being ostracised. Being gender neutral draws a fine line between the structurally placed needs of men, women and those gifted by God with the sixth sense of allowing the grace to live with dignity at par with all. By doing so a progressive society in the most intelligent sense will neither reinforce nor question gender roles. In a socially constructionist perspective, the prevailing patterns of hegemony create gender norms that families, communities and social institutions reinforce and reconstruct. Individuals learn and internalize norms about what it means to be in a specifically designed and tailor-made arrangement for a holistic viewpoint. This is meant to be also looking at gender norms through a lens well established for associating with social definitions, social realities and other power dimensions.

Empowerment is a personal journey through which many individuals who are not able to lead a socially accepted life in the mainstream can develop a clear and evolving understanding of themselves in the world, accompanied by increasing agency and assets.

These Empowered Souls can recognize their inherent worth and the fundamental equality with all and are able to critically examine their lives and the inequities in their societies, and are able to effectively negotiate in order to aspire to and achieve their goals. Mobilizing communities, systems and social networks, including through effective communication

strategies to demonstrate positive attitudes and investment in creating an environment for allowing all to breathe freely both in intent and brevity.

Looking at laying a wreath on challenging restrictive gender norms is not the sole responsibility of only one specific community or organisations engaged at empowering all. However, engaging all in a holistic, comprehensive and coordinated responses requires that recognition is fostered of harmful masculinities, and solutions identified and implemented to redress them. While effective programmes to influence behaviours and attitudes combine group education with community outreach and mobilization and with mass-media campaigns, getting support for sustained gender equality requires progressive policies that influence norms, behaviours and attitudes at multiple level.

The way forward is: We need to be gender aware not gender unequal. We have to uplift our Intellect to an ascension of great fortitude and maintain an outlook that encourages and promotes diversity inclusion in the right cause and intent. This will allow all to live freely without any fear of being ostracised and classified as not belonging to this world.

–  © Mayaa SH

Mayaa SH is an award winning Author, Artist and a Women Empowerment Campaigner. She is certified in disability inclusion in humanitarian coordination and Strategies to strengthen the Social Service Workforce for Child Protection, Building Gender IQ etc. from the United Nations. Mayaa has written on various topics like Feminism and Mental Health Awareness Topics and has over 40 anthologies to her accolades. She is also a signatory of CEDAW -an international treaty on the rights of women. She is an avid motivator of uplifting women across all sections of the society by navigating them through emotions and empowering them to rekindle hope and self-belief. Her work depicts the identity, economic and social freedom of many.

Mayaa’s philosophy encapsulates Art as the means of inner peace. This is hard penance, it is Discipline. It is through this that any artist embodies the dream ideas from the golden and rainbow soul through the three gunas are called: sattva (goodness, calmness, harmonious), rajas (passion, activity, movement), and tamas (ignorance, inertia, laziness).