Transwoman Karthiga ran a tea stall at Washermanpet in Chennai. Life was good — she managed it successfully, and finally felt like she had achieved something. But it was all over in a minute. The floods struck the city in 2015, washing away her shop, taking with it everything she struggled to build over years. “I am still struggling,” she says. A natural disaster, be it a man-made one or the result of climate change, affects people from every strata, but it is the marginalised who are most affected. This includes people from the LGBTQ+ community.
The Sahodari Foundation, an organisation involved in transgender rights advocacy, hopes to kickstart a conversation on this issue, especially on how climate change affects transgender people. Kalki Subramaniam, the founder of Sahodari, will be presenting a panel discussion on the topic in the city, in which transwomen Sowndharya Gopi and Karthiga are set to participate.
