In the face of constant adversity and discouragement, even from his own family, 23-year-old Sadikul Islam has been working tirelessly for the inclusion of transgender people in the mainstream society.
Sadikul’s relationship with his family has deteriorated so much in the pursuit of his goal that they have not been in contact since last May. Although his village home is in Madaripur, Sadikul celebrated the last two Eids in Dhaka.
“I have not even received a phone call from any of my two brothers since last May. I have stopped calling them as well,” said Sadikul, a postgraduate student at Dhaka University (DU), told Dhaka Tribune.
In mid-2018, Sadikul founded a 15-member platform named Brihonnola, which works for the inclusion of transgender people. Later, on August 14 the same year, Brihonnola decided on a 21-member executive committee with DU Special Education Department Chairman Muhammed Mahbubur Rahaman Litu as its advisor.
Two months later, Brihonnola won the Young Bangla Award for its contribution in bringing transgender people into the mainstream society. In association with several non-government organizations, the platform has conducted a number of training programs for transgender people.
Discussing how he got the idea to work for transgender people, Sadikul said that a chance encounter with a transgender person, when he was a first year HSC student in 2011, had inspired him.
“It was a gloomy evening. I was very depressed for some reason, and had left my home in Mugda, and gone to a foot over bridge near Kamalapur Railway Station to calm myself,” he recalled.
“At one point, a transgender person approached me with an indecent proposal. I reacted badly, but instead of becoming angry with me, the person modestly asked what was wrong,” said Sadikul.
“The transgender person even offered me rickshaw fare to return home. The person’s attitude made me think of what I could do for the transgender community,” he added.
Sadikul’s initial efforts met with significant resistance from his family, forcing him to wait.
“I had to wait till I entered university, when I got some more independence. After enrolling in DU, I was singing with a group of friends one day, and two transgender people joined us, further boosting my motivation to work for their welfare,” he said.
“From then on, I started sharing my intentions with my close friends. Luckily, I had a great opportunity to let people know about my plans when I participated in an education-based contest in Dhaka in 2017,” he added, mentioning that his team won the competition.
Subsequently, Sadikul began networking on the DU campus, and ran an awareness campaign on transgender people for students of the university.
“The journey was definitely not easy. I stayed focused on inclusion into mainstream society for the transgender community, not only through social orientation, but also self-reliance training and education in any form,” he said.
After founding Brihonnola, and opening a messenger group in mid-2018, four transgender people contacted the group as its first participants.
“We threw a party marking Eid-ul-Fitr that very year, at Suhrawardy Udyan. A number of transgender people participated, even though they were discouraged by the university authorities. We gave sarees to each of the 30 transgender people there,” Sadikul said.
As part of its campaign for mainstream inclusion of the transgender community, Brihonnola also organized a tour to Sylhet in late 2018. A total of 21 transgender people, and 26 DU students participated.
Mentioning that fundraising is one of the major obstacles for Brihonnola’s activities, Sadikul said the platform is planning to launch a cleanliness campaign on and around the DU campus, with the participation of 150 transgender people. The campaign may be organized as soon as next month.
“We are also considering the expansion of our activities to all universities across Bangladesh. We will visit Rajshahi University, Bangladesh Agriculture University, and Shahjalal University of Science and Technology by the end of 2019,” he added.
When contacted, Mahbubur Rahaman Litu praised Sadikul’s initiatives, and said the members of Brihonnola were happy to work for the transgender people.
“We want the transgender people to be empowered socially, academically, and economically. This will help their inclusion into mainstream society, though society sadly still does not have a positive mindset towards them,” he added.
