Sadhana Mishra has become the first transgender in Odisha to be issued a passport. She got it by post on Friday.
Earlier, the passport she had possessed identified her as a ‘male’ in the sex column while her photograph depicted her as a female. This posed problems for her at airports and during check-ins.
“Though my previous passport allowed me to travel the world, it neglected a distinct aspect of my identity,” said Sadhana, who is currently working as a social development officer at the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) here in an interview to the OST.
“I am immensely elated to be the first person in the State to receive this passport. I hope this sets an example for society to accept us as who we are and respect our choices,” she added.
With proper submission of required documents and police verification already conducted for the first passport issued, Sadhana did not have to face obstacles for the re-issue of her second passport and is grateful to Regional Passport Officer Dr Digvijay Giri for understanding her difficulties and making the process easier for her.
She is now identified as a ‘T’ (transgender) in the sex column.
Sadhana, born into a Brahmin family in Keonjhar district, faced a lot of stigma since childhood due to her feminine bent. However, despite all odds, she chose to be a woman and gave up her birth name ‘Shyamasunder’. With a Masters degree in Social Work, she has always strived to work for welfare of the transgender community and other social development issues such as betterment of tribal children.
Notably, a social activist of Maharashtra was reportedly the first person in the country to be documented as a transgender in the passport in 2015.
In a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court in April 2014 accepted the petition of the long-discriminated-against transgender community to sanctify them as the third gender and made them eligible for job quotas, welfare schemes and facilities such as voter ID cards, driving licences and passports that secure their identity.