Transgender turns her research focus on her own community's struggles

Mysuru: Of late transgenders are coming out of the closet and trying to bring down the barriers among their own class in their attempt to join the mainstream of the society.32-year-old Deepa Buddhe of University of Mysore belongs to the group of such rare talents among transgenders for she is doing a research on her own community.

She is the only research scholar in Karnataka who is studying about her own TG community and their travails which rather go unnoticed in the society. Deepa Buddhe was one among the 40 research scholars (most of 39 belong to other backward classes) who got a helping hand from ITC which has distributed laptops to them.

The laptops were distributed in association with University of Mysore on Wednesday. Coming back to the inspiring story of Deepa Buddhe, her journey to success was not a cake walk. A native of Heggavadipura in Chamarajanagara, Deepa was in high school when she discovered about her being a transgender. When she joined PUC, she completely identified herself with transgender community. She did her degree in History, Economics and Kannada at Government College in Santhemarahalli, but had to brave many odds and dropped out without continuing her higher education in 2015. Meanwhile, she was deeply inspired by the thoughts of Dr B R Ambedkar and Bhagwan Buddha. She joined Masters degree at University of Mysore under transgender quota.

She later joined for research and scored highest marks at Dr B R Ambedkar Research and Extension Centre, at University of Mysore. Now she has completed one year in her research on the topic "Mysuru- Chamarajanagar LinghatvaAlpasankyatharaJeevanaMatthuHorata" (The struggle of sexual minorities in Mysuru- Chamarajanagara) under the guidance of Prof J Somashekar and Narendra Kumar.

Deepa Buddhe's parents Gurusiddaiah and Mahadevamma are daily-wage labourers. She left home in her PUC and joined Samatha organisation and did part-time job and also worked as outreach coordinator for the community empowerment. Deepa Buddhe said,"I am happy to be back to pursue higher education. University of Mysore is providing the best of the encouragement and today I got a laptop also for research works. I thank UOM syndicate member Dr Chaitra Narayan".

Mysuru- Kodagu MP PrathapSimha, VC of University of Mysore Prof G Hemanth Kumar and former VC Prof K S Rangappa lauded Deepa Buddhe for her zeal to study, that sets an example for others.