For the first time, the Ministry of Culture, Government of India has appointed a transgender person and activist, as the Member of the Council and Executive Committee of the National Culture Fund.

Oorvasi Gandhi, a senior Transgender Rights Activist, born in Usilampatti, a small town in Madurai District, Tamil Nadu, has been appointed as the non-officio member of the Council and Executive Committee of the National Culture Fund.

She will be sharing the chair with esteemed people like Chairman of Ambuja Neotia Group Harshavardhan Neotia, Chairperson of Murty Foundation Sudha Murty, etc.

Gandhi left her home at a very early age and has always fought to break the shackles of the Trans/Hijra Jamaat system. She has been working for the rural Transgender communities of Tamil Nadu for more than two decades and has supported the Rural Transgender community in Tamil Nadu in obtaining their property rights and basic facilities like shelter, sanitation etc.

She is one of the few people who is working to protect the indigenous gender-variant communities’ tradition and spiritual spaces in Tamil Nadu.

Also, she was even the first person who has been granted the right to inherit property under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019. For the past seven years, she is closely involved with Srishti Madurai LGBT Student Volunteer Movement.

In the past, she is amongst the very few people who have directly discussed the concerns of Transgender Rights and the implementation of the various projects with Bill Gates and Melinda Gates during their visit to Madurai. She even developed a business model which has benefitted hundreds of Transgender persons in Tamil Nadu.

Oorvasi also sheltered hundreds of homeless LGBTQIA communities in her home and mentored them; now, these transmen supported by her are part of the Tamil Nadu Transgender Persons Welfare Board.

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