Working with Arju foundation gave me an insight of what struggles do the people from the transgender community face. Initially starting with a very little idea and knowledge about their life, working with the NGO helped me to understand the community better. If I had to sum up my EA in three words it would be :
- Uncomfortable: It was kind of uncomfortable as I was surrounded by people from the hijra or the transgender community. In order to understand them, I had to spend time with them and know about their life. In the process, there were situations where I needed to be prepared to listen to emotional stories, get familiar with terms that they used or they talking about prostitution or the injustice story.
- Insightful: I interviewed people, was part of the discussion and wrote reports on the kind of support the NGO offered the community which helped me know more about the community and not limit my ideas to the previous knowledge I had
- Challenging: I would say it was not only challenging in terms of respecting and understanding the community but also the time limit I was there in the NGO. 10 days of volunteering compromised of a lot of engagement but I still in order to know more I needed more time to work in the NGO.
One very important part of my engagement would be working and staying in the environment in which the community works. I could observe the harsh inequality faced by the NGO in terms of where their office was located, how did people around them interacted with them and thus how do the problems faced by them cause them to feel not inclusive in the society. Though initially I was not satisfied with my engagement but now reflecting on the kind of engagements I did or observation I made, helped me to understand the issues faced by the community.