“The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse” – Walt Whitman
Soumya Bhaskaran’s way of contribution of a verse: Soumya Bhaskaran is a Fellow from the current batch of Young India Fellowship at Ashoka University. In 2015, she got selected as one amongst the four dancers from India in the BRICS International Forum to represent India in various International platforms. Apart from dancing, Soumya is dedicated to taking down the psyche of people towards the LGBTQIA community. She is the Founder of the self-designed ELM(Experiential Learning module) TransFormers and is keenly working on the project with two other fellows that gives her team a lot of scope pertaining to this particular community.
We had a fruitful conversation with her about the two things that she is really passionate about—Dancing and working for the LGBTQIA community.
Q. How was your experience in BRICS?
A. Being trained in Bharatnatyam for 14 years, I gave my audition for BRICS International Forum, and I never thought that I would be one amongst the people to represent my own country on various occasions. The experience was beyond rewarding. We got a platform to choreograph and present myriad compositions of patriotic songs in a semi-classical as well as a classical form.
Q. What were your performances like?
A. We did not have choreographers as such. My troop did 5 performances and the choreography of each performance was a joint effort by all the members of our team. We were the ones who would conceptualise and also make the storyline of the entire dance. Overall, it was a good learning experience.
Q. How do you deal with losing dance competitions?
A. Losing has always been hard for me. I lost a national competition and was crying a lot. During this particular incident, My mom came to me and told me that unless you lose you would never know how it feels to succeed. From that moment onwards, I have felt as though failure should be a part of life. The key is to see a failure as a learning experience and not as a character trait. I believe failing helps us gain more power, confidence, and also keeps us grounded.
Q. How did you get interested in working for the LGBTQIA community?
A. I was traveling with my dad and one day I saw people from the Transgender community begging on the streets. Common sight it was, I have often read that the Transgender community are forced into begging and prostitution and I strongly started feeling that I need to do something for the society. The only solution I felt that could bring about a change was to provide them with alternate sources of employment. Through periodic research on this community, I came to know that the prime reason behind their lack of employment is their gender identity that is different from the accepted societal norms. Companies are reluctant to hire them because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. My self-designed ELM caters only to people from the Transgender community and attempts to employ them in respectable positions in corporate organisations.
I strongly believe that a lot of them are educated but not employed and that is what we need to change. The empathy that I felt towards them initially has changed into a passion for contributing towards the community.
Q. How are you approaching the transgender people and interacting with them?
A. Till now, we have partnered with 7-8 NGOs working for the Transgender community. By building on these partnerships we have created a database of 100+ people from the transgender community. We are currently working with the data before we can send them to the companies. We have also started our Facebook page and we have interviewed various transgender people who have made it big in their area despite the various challenges they face in their everyday lives. We are almost in the middle of launching our new website called “TransFormers Initiative”
Q. Considering the stigma attached towards the people from the Transgender community in the corporate world, what would be your first step to change the deep-rooted mindset people have?
A. The first step is to approach the HR department of the organisations because the HR departments have the sole authority to recruit them. Also, even if the HR ends up hiring them, many employees already working in the organisation create a hostile environment for people from the Transgender community. Therefore, we have thought of doing some sensitisation workshops in the companies. Moreover, we have found 4-5 transgender friendly companies that have amiable colleagues and gender-neutral washrooms which is quite a big initiative. We are trying to persuade other companies to follow the same practices.
I am in awe of the work Soumya and her team has been doing. I wish her the best in her future endeavors.
Edited by: Priyanka Shankar
All the images are the courtesy of Soumya Bhaskaran