Kerala   

Depicting the marginalised

Photo: S. Ramesh Kurup

INSIGHT: P. Abhijith at an exhibition of his photos on the Hijra community at Indoor Stadium in Kozikode. —

The long-haired woman, dressed in a violet ghaghra choli, looks quite pretty in the picture. Elsewhere in the exhibition, the woman in a green sari also looks attractive. But, they are not women; they are ‘hijra’s’ (or transsexuals).

“They are an extremely marginalised and often misunderstood community in India, especially in Kerala, and I wanted to make the common man here aware of their existence,” explains P. Abhijith, the Kozhikode-based photographer, who has put on display 60 pictures he took over a period of one year. “I took most of my pictures during the annual Koovagam festival in Tamil Nadu, in which ‘hijras’ from all over India take part.”

He says he went to the festival to find out more about this community. “I talked with many of them and learnt that they were born men but wanted to be women. I found them rather friendly people. The response to the exhibition has been encouraging,” he adds.

The three-day exhibition concludes at the V.K. Krishna Menon Indoor Stadium, Kozhikode, on Saturday.

P.K. Ajith Kumar

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