Inspiring Change

Amongst the few transgender people in India to work inprivate sector, Sadhana Mishra’s life has been a blend of tears, confrontation, struggle for acceptance and a fight for rights. From Satya Sunder Mishra to Sadhana Mishra, the tall and dynamic lady shares her victorious journey.

- Suchitra Iyer

Finding herself in the midst of children gives her endless joy. And, when they address her as Maa, Sadhana Mishra is overwhelmed with emotions, every single time. She has recently been appointed the Social Development Officer at the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, Bhubaneswar, one of the world’s biggest schools in the world to impart free education and boarding to tribal children. What’s so great about this news, you may wonder. Well, Sadhana Mishra is no ordinary woman—she is not a woman by birth. She has struggled all her life to live the life of a woman and has eventually emerged victorious.

A propensity towards all things feminine was a trait she discovered even as a child of four or five. “I loved dressing up like a girl and playing with my sisters and her friends rather than my brother,” she recalls. Teasing and taunts from men carried on. The only person who understood her at the time was her mother. Coming from an orthodox tribal area, Keonjhar, in Orissa, didn’t help her cause either. Even her father, who was a peon in the same school where Sadhana studied, wasn’t spared from jibes made by other students, ‘Your son is a chakka,’ they would taunt. However, even as a child, Sadhana never let it be known that she was affected by all this. “I never wanted to appear weak. Even if I cried, it was when I was alone,” she says.