They Would Be More Comfortable Seeing Me With A Begging Bowl, Alleges India's First Transgender College Principal

Manabi Bandopadhyay, the first transgender principal of a college in India, is now in deep trouble. All the teaching and non-teaching staff members of Krishnagar Women's College have levelled allegations against her.

Classes have been disrupted from November 30. Bandopadhyay, however, feels that all this is being done because of her gender identity.

"I have been fighting a long battle against discrimination. When I took over as the principal of the Krishnagar Women's College, I wanted the development of my college. I wanted to instil a sense of discipline and good work culture. But once I tried to do that people started ganging up against me.", said Bandopadhyay.

AP

Allegations against her range from financial irregularities to administrative failure.

"I am ready for any enquiry. If I am proved guilty, I will accept any punishment. But there is no point in stalling classes this way. I have come here to work and now I find everyone is against me. They are singling me out. This pressure is becoming unbearable for me," she said.

On being reminded that this was the same college that had welcomed her appointment on June 9, 2015, she said, "Now everything seems like a drama. They welcomed me here and thought I would become a puppet in their hands. They wanted me to sanction whatever they demanded. But I refuse to do that. I am good when a person is doing his or her job. But I will certainly not accept if a person is a shirker," she claimed.

BCCL

According to her, the root cause of the problem is that she wanted to function by the rule book. "These people wanted me to act like Gandhari from Mahabharata. They wanted me to be blind and accept whatever was going on. I will not even sign on a single document without verifying its authenticity. That takes time but they don't have the patience to wait. I don't want to do things fast and risk having cleared something that isn't authentic. They wanted me to withdraw the FIR I had done against two professors of this college. I am not ready to do that. In the larger context, I think they didn't expect a transgender principal to be wise or conscious about the dos and don'ts," she said.

BCCL

In her views, the stereotypical impression of a transgender is largely to be blamed for this. As she said, "People might say they are ready to accept us in the mainstream. But deep down, they are just not ready to do so. They'd more comfortable seeing me with a begging bowl at traffic signals and not as a principal. Helming the administration of a college isn't the role that they can accept a transgender person to discharge properly."