Transgender persons, especially transwomen, face a lot of harassment from the society, which more often than not, escalates to molestation, rape and extortion. The legal system is also inefficient in protecting these people, with police officials themselves being harassers. Rachana Mudraboyina, a trans rights activist in Hyderabad, has conceived a YouTube Channel named TransVision, which intends to bring the issues of trans persons to the mainstream by bringing voices of the community in three languages: Telugu, Kannada and Dakhini. The team is Crowdfunding, and has already released some episodes.
Rachana, the director of the project, mentions that she has two intentions with TransVision, “To have a dialogue with the larger audience of the society by presenting accurate information on Transgender people’s issues which can help in perceptional change and which can in turn minimize the crime and violence happening on Trans community. And to create livelihood options for Transgender community which till today is confined only to begging or sex work by creating exclusive Trans media Team.”
Moses Tulasi, a film director, who is also the producer for this venture, mentions his tryst with TransVision. “I had met Rachana during the making of Walking the Walk, my documentary on independent Telangana’s first Swabhimana (pride) walk that was organised as a political protest against the brutal murder of a trans woman named Pravallika in Hyderabad in Jan 2015. It was through Rachana that I have had an opportunity to talk to the hijra community of Hyderabad. Their personal stories deeply moved me and I wanted to contribute to the community using my passion for filmmaking as the medium. Rachana had brought the idea of TransVision to be and I instantly connected with it. Working with Rachana, in a lot of ways, has been a journey of unlearning my privileges and more importantly getting in touch with my own Swabhimana as well,” he says.
TransVision comes off as an important socio-political venture that addresses trans issues through trans voices, and this has the potential to be become an important resource for people looking for genuine opinions from lived experiences.