Kerala: Transwoman Who Was Trying To Earn A Living Harassed By Local Shopkeepers
Shikha Chaurasia
Kochi, October 15, 2020: Yet again, another incident of harassment came to light after a video went viral on social media. A transwoman from Kochi, Kerala who was hit hard due to the COVID-19 pandemic tried to earn a living by selling biryani.
Sajana Shaji started her own business by selling biryani. She even employed four other transwomen and all of them together were trying to make ends meet.
Shaji had taken several loans from many grocery and meat sellers to set up her business. However, she and her employees were harassed by the local vendors from that area. They had endured this for over a month.
Soon Shaji broke down and took to social media to tell people about her plight. On Monday, she posted a video on Facebook which went viral.
In the video, she says that a man named Gireesh has been harassing her and driving away her customers. Gireesh sells fish snacks opposite her stall.
Distraught Shaji said in her video that her stall managed to sell 300 packets of biryani a day. But soon, Gireesh started spreading rumours about the quality of her biryani and due to this, her business suffered a huge blow. Out of 150 packets, she could only sell 20 as people stopped trusting her. She was deeply saddened and also could not bear to see the huge amount of food being wasted.
She also said, “The society expects the transgenders to earn a decent living by working instead of roaming at nights and begging on trains. But how is it possible if we don’t get respect and society itself does not allow us to work?”
According to the news portal The News Minute, the police refused to acknowledge Shaji’s plight and didn’t register her complaint even after repeated requests from her and her group. However, after Shaji’s video went viral and got attention, the Hill Palace Police finally decided to lodge an FIR in the matter. One person has been arrested in the case.
