Tough journey of a transperson towards freedom
Driven by goal: M. Nila launched Pharm Foundation in 2020 to provide education, healthcare, and job opportunities not only to transpersons but also to others.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Nila amma! Nila amma! These calls can be heard in the school run by the Pharm Foundation at Perumbakkam. “Many times, I’ve felt a longing to have kids of my own. We might be transgender, but the feelings are the same. When the kids in tuition and the women in the tailoring unit call me Nila amma, my life feels fulfilled,” says M. Nila, founder of the Foundation.
Nila started the Foundation when she noticed a lack of opportunities for transpersons to make an affordable living. “The Foundation was started in 2020 to focus on education, healthcare, and job opportunities for everyone. It was initially meant to empower the transgender people, but I realised soon that everyone could benefit from it,” recalls Nila. The students in the School of Love that the organisation runs are taught by transgender teachers. “Apart from teaching, we offer counselling to youths who took to drugs and teach tailoring to destitute women,” says Nila.
Difficult to come out
The 38-year-old recalls how her journey was not easy. Nila, who grew up at Perumbakkam, says, “Even as a boy, I knew I was a girl. People would tease and bully me for my feminine gestures, but I knew I was girl trapped in a male body. At that time, I did not have the guts to come out.” While attending school as an adolescent, she would be bullied. “My dad would scold me and ask me to behave like a boy so that I wouldn’t get beaten up. My parents lacked awareness. To support me, my mother would ask me to join karate class to defend myself, but what good would that do,” asks Nila.
She took up her first job at 18. “It was at a BPO and I decided to explore my style and started wearing tight clothes, which made my colleagues uncomfortable. Soon, they fired me as I was too feminine for them. This is when I met a few other transpersons,” Nila recalls.
The first time she went out with a group of transgender people, Nila was shocked that they begged for a living. “They told me that this was the life of a transperson. Soon, I too would fall into it. For the first time, I would get to be myself, which gave me immense happiness. However, I also fell into the life of begging and sex work,” she says.
A chance meeting
It was during this time that she met a person with disability who put things in perspective for her. “They asked me when God had given me good form and limbs, why I chose to beg and continue in sex work? That is when I decided to quit that life and pursue a degree in pharmacy. I ran away from home to Pudukkottai as the pressure to marry as a man increased. There, I met my mother Jayabharathi who taught me how to manage her Trust,” she says. Then, things took a turn for the better. Nila’s family in Chennai called her home and she was able to find a job soon in an organisation that worked for the betterment of the transgender community. “The organisation was a huge help in setting up Pharm Foundation. While I will continue to help my community, I want to help every person who is facing problems, irrespective of caste, creed, and gender,” says Nila.
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