Women's Day: Finding the woman within

"I never imagined a point in my life where I would be accepted by the society for who I am. Today, I am felicitated in the same spaces where I was once humiliated,” says an emotional Manjamma Jogathi. She is the first transwoman president of the Karnataka Janapada Academy. She was also recently awarded the Padma Shri.

Born as Manjunath Shetty in Hosapete, Vijayanagara district, Manjamma Jogathi first began identifying herself as a female during her teenage years.

Soon people around her started reacting. Her classmates in high school kept her at a distance. Her father and brother beat her for being “girly” and she was rebuked wherever she went.

But nothing could change her.

Bowing to pressure from people in the village, her parents inducted her as a jogathi (a transgender community).

“Usually, family members do not induct jogathis but my family accepted me and did it for me. However, there was too much pressure from people around us and I was eventually asked to leave home and I started my life all alone,” Manjamma recalls.

The decision changed the course of her life forever.

Credit: DH illustration

Life hasn’t always been kind. She had to face many challenges because she chose to tread a different path. She attempted to die by suicide twice. “The second time I wanted to end my life was when I was sexually assaulted by a group of men one evening, on my way back home,” she says. However, she decided to fight to survive.

In a chance encounter, she was introduced to 'Jogathi Nritya', a folk form associated with the jogathis. “When I was walking in the market area one day, I saw artiste Mathikkal Basappa and his son performing the Jogathi Nritya. I was attracted to it and trained with him for a year,” she recounts.

Her foray into the world of theatre too was a means to an end. Having completed SSLC, she also took tuition classes and sold idlis for a living.

Eventually, she also won her family back. “My parents were happy that I was earning my living by working hard. I began talking to them again.”

Over the years, this accomplished artiste has performed in over 2,000 shows of Yellamma plays, Bayalu Nataka, among others.

She felt like a professional artiste for the first time when she performed at a police station in 1989. “A local police station invited us to perform at an event they were organising. I was suspicious that this was a pretext to arrest us. However, my fears were unfounded and they applauded us after the performance,” she says.

At the age of 63, Manjamma is still an active dancer.

What does Women’s Day mean to her? “It may seem symbolic at the outset but it’s that one day when women’s efforts are highlighted. For me personally, it’s significant as I identify myself as a woman.”