What is remarkable about Joyita Mondal from West Bengal?
Well, it is only that she is a transgender, and has achieved the unthinkable! Today, she is a judge in a Lok Adalat.
- Joyita Mondal was not ‘born’ a girl. She was a boy, born into a traditional Hindu family residing at Kolkata in West Bengal.
- Unlike other boys, he loved to wear the clothes of a girl instead, and play with dolls.
- As he grew older, the boy resorted to a ‘secret’ life. Outside the house, he wore girl’s apparel. At home, he remained a male.
- Mondal’s family knew nothing about the boy’s secret life or the verbal tortures he faced at school daily.
- After completing high school, Mondal obtained permission from his mother to go for a job at Dinajpur, a neighbouring district.
- Joyita Mondal remained there permanently as Joyita, the eunuch/hijra. She dressed as a woman, as well as sang and danced openly.
- Joyita Mondal then decided to resume her education, through correspondence. She decided to study law too.
- Soon after the National Election Commission decided to award voter cards to a category called ‘other’, Joyita obtained hers in 2010.
- Her organisation, Dinajpur Notun Alo Society, catered to the welfare of victims of human trafficking, sex workers and beggars.
- In 2011, she began counselling sessions for family members and relatives of transgender persons.
- Films and street plays served as the medium to sensitise students and teachers associated with private and government schools/colleges.
- Joyita’s intelligence and public services fetched her tremendous rewards. On July 8, 2017, a Lok Adalat appointed her as a learned judge. The office of the sub-divisional Legal Services Committee at Islampur in Dinajpur district, gave her this designation.
- This Lok Adalat is a civil court linked to Section 25 of the Legal Services Authority Act of 1987.
- Currently, Joyita is engaged in undergoing sex re-assignment surgery, in order to transform completely into a woman.
Joyita Mondal is a remarkably inspiring personality, regardless of her sexual preferences. Her ultimate aim is to return every individual’s dignity and self-respect.
