Namaste/Vanakam
Love and greetings from Srishti Madurai!
Wish you happy Ganesh Chaturthi / VinayakaChaturthi
On 2nd September 2019, we are celebrating
nine years of our journey as India’s first Genderqueer and Intersex led human
rights movement. We began our journey with a humble aim
to create a space for Genderqueer, Intersex and LGBTQA+ Indians in the public discourse. Through its
activities, Srishti Madurai has continuously worked to generate discussions,
solution-oriented research, scholarship and publications on SOGIESC issues in Tamil
Nadu/India.
At every step in the journey, we have made an attempt to
engage constructively with all stakeholders to work towards holistic protection
of human rights of LGBTQIA+ and Genderqueer people. We’ve tried to fill crucial
gaps in law and policy by bringing into focus the rights of Intersex persons as
per India’s constitutional scheme.
As a self funded volunteer based movement/organisation,
none of our accomplishments would have been possible without the overwhelming
love and support we got from people of all walks of life. We are deeply
grateful to everyone- all individuals and organisations who have supported us
in our work so far.
Special mention of thanks and gratitude to the support
we received from OII Chinese Taiwan, IHF the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, Intersex
Asia, COC Netherlands and NNID.
The journey so
far…
On 2011 September 2 a handful of
student volunteer team inspired by each other in Madurai started a forum for non-binary, genderqueer & Intersex people in Madurai we named our team as
Srishti Madurai inspired by Anjali Gopalan.
2012:
Our movement started with a 24X7 phone helpline for genderqueer people in three
South Indian languages. In the same year, Srishti Madurai organized the Alan
Turing Rainbow Festival 2012 which was essentially a Genderqueer Education
festival to mark the birth centenary celebrations of Alan Turing. We reached
out to more than 600 school children in Madurai. In the same year, we organised
Asia’s first genderqueer pride festival which included participation of Anjali
Gopalan, A. Revathi ma and several key persons.
2013:
In this year, we took up the case of Champion Athlete Santhi Soundarajan who is
now one of the committee members of Srishti Madurai. Regional Tamil terms for
Genderqueer identities were coined by Team Srishti Madurai at the American
College, Introduced Gay literature, and Transgender literature as part of curriculum
at the American College in Madurai.
Srishti Madurai started offering courses on Indian Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Trekking Team of Srishti Madurai started monthly Trekking events for Madurai queer community and allies to discover the History of Madurai in SOGIESC lens.
2014:
First Tamil book on LGBTQIA+ genderqueer rights was published, this book was
launched by Tamil Nadu BJP leader Srimathi Vanathi Srinivasan in the presence
of several volunteers from RSS. Later, this book became part of the curriculum
for Intersex Human Rights Studies for Tamil PG Research Department at the
American College in Madurai. Now, this book is also available in all public
libraries in Singapore. It has created strong influence in Tamil diaspora in the
South Asian region.
Team Srishti Madurai theatre performance on Bio Art - Genesis was initiated by John Marshal
Team Srishti Madurai started the Kannagi Study Circle to spread the Tamil Philosophy in SOGIESC perspectives.
2015- Srishti Madurai was invited to witness the passage
of the Transgender person’s Rights Bill presented by Tiruchi Siva in the Rajya
Sabha (Parliament of India).
Srishti Madurai requested
MPs from both upper and lower house of Parliament of India to present the
issues pertained to intersex human rights in India.
2016- Justice for Santhi campaign
was initiated by Srishti Madurai to highlight the discrimination faced by
Female Athletes, the campaign reached more than 1 Million people. Srishti Madurai was instrumental in getting a Government Order for (permanent job) Santhi Soundarajan as athletic coach in Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu.
Srishti Madurai started awareness
campaign to educate law makers, policy makers, politicians, medical practitioners,
academicians, and media people on Intersex Human Rights.
Srishti Madurai launched a
important petition to ban sex selective surgeries on infants born with Intersex
traits to the National Human Rights Commission of India.
2017- Srishti Madurai started
engaging with various Religious bodies and faith communities to create
awareness on SOGIESC issues.
Srishti Madurai engaged with
Buddhist, Jain, Islamic faith leaders/communities and also with the National
Council for Churches in India. JM John Marshal and Gopi Shankar contributed to various
interfaith dialogues and primary book project to educate the religious leaders
from the church on SOGIESC. Especially Srishti Madurai contributed to the book “Definitions-
Understanding Gender, Sex, and Sexuality. A Theological Reader on Human
Sexuality and Gender Diversities: Envisioning Inclusivity”
Srishti Madurai
was part of Madrid Summit 2017 and World Pride, Madrid, Spain.
Srishti Madurai was one of
the signatories and key speaker at Madrid Summit Declaration along with the
officials from the UNESCO, the EU parliament and the UN. Also politicians from
11 EU countries were present in this event.
Srishti Madurai was invited to ILGA Asia Regional Conference at Cambodia- first time Intersex Human Rights in India was discussed at the Asian forum.
Gopi Shankar Madurai was elected
as Intersex Representative and Executive Board Member of ILGA Asia region
Our former Trustee and
advisory board member Nandini Murali penned the book – Life in In Trans
Activism A. Revathi - by Zubaan Publication.
Self-funded till 2017
2018-
main focus-
Srishti Madurai became one
of the founding members of Intersex Asia (Asia’s first collective forum for
Intersex activists, individuals and Intersex led organisations) in Bangkok
Students from more than 12
countries visited Srishti Madurai for learning SOGIESC issues in Indic perspective, Inspired number of scholars
Srishti Madurai organised the Matrixial Intersex Festival supported by the Intersex Human Rights Fund, Dr. Bracha Ettinger renowned scholar delivered the key note address.
2019: OII Chinese Taiwan and RFSL Sweden supported Srishti
Madurai to attend ILGA World Conference in Wellington- for the first time
Intersex Youth Panel was formed and Gopi Shankar Madurai was elected to the
Youth Steering Committee of ILGA World.
Volunteers from Srishti
Madurai for the first time attended the ILGA Asia conference in Seoul & 2nd
Asian Intersex Forum at Seoul, South Korea.
Srishti Madurai inspired the landmark judgment from the Madras High Court (Madurai Bench) to ban sex selective surgeries on Intersex Infants/Children in Tamil Nadu which directed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of the Government of Tamil Nadu to pass a Government Order within 8 weeks from the court order.
Srishti Madurai jointly with Intersex Asia organised 1st ever policy briefing meeting to pass the Government Order, was co sponsored by COC Netherlands.
Srishti Madurai along with NNID Netherlands jointly submits a report in CRPD treaty bodies meeting on September 2 2019 sponsored by COC Netherlands.
Historic Victory
The State Government of Tamil Nadu, India passed a Government Order to ban sex selective surgeries on Intersex infants with the inputs from Srishti Madurai
No words can
express our sincere gratitude and appreciation for the overwhelming support and
kindness everybody showed to Srishti Madurai.
One by one each day
flew by, 9 years of memories that you shared with Srishti Madurai, volunteers
who were with us to share/organise/celebrate big events and holidays, to simple
daily pleasures. Some tearful times along Srishti Madurai’s way, some joy that can’t
be measured.
9 years now gone, but still our gratitude makes sense of our past,
brings peace for today, and trying to create a space to celebrate who we are.
These
9 years of service made us to take a baby step to bring up a social space for
Intersex, Genderqueer and LGBTQA+ task not just in Madurai but also in Asia. So far, we
have organised/were part of more than 100 seminars, conferences on SOGIESC
topics, created impact with more than 300,000 students, coined Tamil terms for SOGIESC
identities under Genderqueer umbrella.
Today,
in Srishti Madurai we are entering the 10th year of our existence. It’s a
moment of great blessing for us to serve this cause. Also, today (2019
September 02) we are presenting our joint submission report on human rights of
intersex children in India at the treaty bodies meeting at United Nations in
Geneva.
Bless
us, Be with us in this non-static journey.
Jai Ma (Hailing the Mother Creation)
Published on Vinayakar Chathurthi (September 02 2019), approved by the Executive Director of Srishti Madurai
