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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2024
Introduction
One bright, warm afternoon, I sat across the desk from Akrithi, a trans woman in her thirties who has a guru1 and is also an NGO staff member. As sunlight streamed in through her office window behind her, she excitedly related her experience of a recent advocacy project for transgender people. What struck me was how her perception of her abilities and potential shifted as a result of her participation in this kind of activist work:
I never knew that I would achieve such great success in my leadership…. I have learned a lot, I have learned a lot through all this … my skills and capacity have gone up. I’m here to prove to any of the society [that is, public] that I can do what you’re doing.
From Akrithi's perspective, the skills she developed through her employment at an NGO caused a dramatic shift in how she perceived and understood herself and her place in the world.
Akrithi's employment history also includes sex work. With a note of pride in her voice, she relays how she “got out” of sex work and into office employment at an NGO:
When I just look back at my way of life, how I came up, from [engaging in] sex work and then joining [an NGO] as a peer educator, field supervisor, then division coordinator, then program manager of the organization, this shows the levels of growth in my life, that [my position now] is a big achievement…. I have proved what I am.
Akrithi frames her employment history as a linear progression, moving “up” from engaging in sex work at a public park to a career as an office worker in an NGO. Her pride is evident in how, upon becoming an office worker, she steadily climbed the NGO employment ladder to her current position. Tellingly, Akrithi does not simply think of her career trajectory as an alternate source of employment and income compared to sex work; rather, it symbolizes the transformation her life has undergone. According to Akrithi, the changes in her employment have “proved” that she has accomplished something truly remarkable.
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