There are good things happening around us. There is justice being served everywhere we see and positive changes happening everywhere. One such astounding change we see is the visibility of more transgender folks amidst us, thanks to the government and normal folks making efforts to work towards accommodating them in society. 

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On August 28th the first ever transgender beauty pageant was held in Gurgaon and it was won by Kolkata's Natasha Biswas. This 26-year-old transqueen is currently pursuing a masters in Business Management. Age was no bar at the pageant as the oldest contestant was in her early 50's. The runners up positions were held by Manipur's Loiloi Haorongbam and Ragasiya from Tamil Nadu. The highlight of this event was that the winner will represent India at the Miss International Trans Queen 2017, later this year.

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Most transgenders in India are shunned from society and are not given equal opportunities because they are seemingly ‘different'. Most of them are not accepted in their own homes or surroundings and are ostracized by their own people . The community, though, has recognised this and have been sticking together ever since. A lot of effort has been made by community workers to give them their rightful place in society and make them feel as much at home as possible.

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Reena Rai, a homemaker and a worker for the community found a pool of talent amongst the transgender community and went ahead and organised India's first transgender beauty pageant. According to her, the transgender community have a lot of talent and beauty which is mostly sidelined, so she took it upon herself to do something special for the community.  Most of the participants from the pageant share a similar vision on how the community should develop and grow. They believe in educating transwomen all across the country to make them aware of their rights and privileges. Most of them go through a world of torture with abandonment and shame and some of them turn out to be *** workers. To break this downward spiral, the pageant was organised to equalise all efforts made towards the community.

Here's hoping many such efforts gather more momentum and helps the transgender community break away from the shackles of judgment and inequality.