Grace Banu

Grace Banu was born and raised in Tuticorin district, Tamil Nadu. A Dalit, she says that from early in her schooldays she was not allowed to attend the regular hours of 9.30 am to 4 pm. She was told that in order to attend school she had to agree to come in to school at 10 am, after all the other students were in and settled, and leave at 3.30 pm before others finished. Other students were told that they would be punished if they interacted with her. This kind of untouchability, based on both her caste and gender identity, caused her to attempt suicide and give up on the idea of finishing school.

Banu's family rejected her in 2008 when she told them of her gender identity.

Despite financial difficulties and discrimination from classmates and teachers, Banu undertook a Diploma in Computer Engineering. She was the first transgender person to be admitted to an engineering college in the state of Tamil Nadu.

Banu struggled financially to remain in college, in part because she was not receiving any support from her family at the time. Responding to a call for help, a local businessman launched an online campaign raising funds for her to complete the course.

After completing her Diploma with honours (95%), Banu was selected to work for a software firm when she had excelled at a campus interview. She would do all her work in the computer labs and with computers she borrowed from friends. While she worked as a programmer in this firm, many of her coworkers were transphobic and abusive to her. Unable to bear the daily discrimination, she quit the job.

Determined to educate herself further, Banu began to do a lot of research into institutions of higher education. She filed a Right to Information (RTI) to find out if Anna University accepted transgender students. On finding out that they did not, she applied against their rules anyway and was given admission to a private affiliated college, Sri Krishna College of Engineering.

Banu believes that ultimately Reservation, dedicated places for members of different groups, is key to the uplift of transgender people. "No amount of temporary governmental and non-governmental schemes can have the transgenerational impact that reservations can have. Reservations are the only way," she says. She has been advocating for Dalit and transgender rights, demanding along with other transgender people for reservation based on gender identity as well as caste.

Banu insists that the intersectionality of these oppressions matter. She believes that Dalits can be transphobic and that the transgender community replicates structures of caste privilege. She says that upper-caste transgender people bring Brahminism into transgender cultural, community and organising spaces. Despite their oppressions, upper-caste transgender women dominate all the positions of leadership, call the shots and define the needs for the whole community." Denying caste in the transgender community is like "hiding a whole pumpkin in a plate of rice," she says.

Banu was active in voicing concerns and questioning the death of a fellow transwoman named Tara (Thara), who burned to death in Chennai.