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NEW DELHI: After a Mayor, India gets its first transgender Principal in Manabi Bandopadhyay.
Bandopadhyay is all set to join Krishnagar Women's College from June 9 onwards. She is currently an Associate Professor at Vivekananda Satabarshiki Mahavidyalaya.
State Education Minister, Partha Chatterjee said, "This decision was taken by the College Service Commission. I don't interfere in their decisions. They are aware of our open mind. I am happy with this decision".
The newly appointed enjoys a celebrity like popularity among her peers as well as the students, and everyone has something good to say about her.
Vice Chancellor at Kalyani University, Rattan Lal Hangloo, too, expressed his confidence in Bandopadhyay and said, "Manabi is a fine human being, a good academician and an able administrator. We are hopeful her appointment will empower other members of the transgender community."
Bandopadhyay was known as Somnath before her sex-change. She had undergone the operation in the year 2003 and was the youngest son in her middle class family at North 24 Pargana. She worked for eight years before her sex-change and like any other transgender and had to face hassles which come with a confused identity. Dilemma such as which washroom to use troubled her wherever she went.
In an interview given to Indian Express she welcomed the decision of the University and acknowledged that hard work always pays. She said, “I have never really hankered for this post. But I have realised that if you are diligent in your work, people start respecting you no matter what kind of prejudices they harbour".
"I am excited, but the media attention has left me in a tizzy. I have been flooded with calls. I understand that my achievement is a big step forward for the transgender movement in the country, but my priority is my students" she said earlier in the same interview.
