Deepa, a beacon for LGBT community

By Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Mysuru: At a time when transgenders are treated shabbily by society, thirtytwo-year-old H.G. Deepa Budde has broken the shackles by pursuing her P.hD at University of Mysuru. She is perhaps the first transgender in Karnataka to register her name for Ph.D.

Born as the fifth kid of a daily wager couple at Heggawadipura village in Chamarajanagar district, Deepa left home after completing her second year PU course and joined the degree course in 2015 but discontinued studies. She fought for getting a separate column in the application form for transgenders in 2016 and got entrance to Dr B.R. Ambedkar Study and Research Centre, University of Mysuru, in 2016.

She chose Dr Ambedkar for her studies and passed out with flying colours scoring 84 per cent.

Deepa completed the degree course at the Government College while working at Samatha Society, which functions for the welfare of transgenders.

She has also worked as treasurer of Karnataka State Sexual Minorities Forum.

Currently, Deepa is doing Ph.D under the guidance of Prof G.Somashekar . The subject of her Ph.D is“A comparative study on life and struggle of minorities in Mysore and Chamarajanagar districts”. Her family has refused to accept Deepa who left her house 12 years ago.

She plans to complete her Ph.D studies in three years and then work as teacher and strive for the uplift of her community..