CHENNAI: More than 80% of the calls received by Chennai's first helpline for lesbians are from men. The helpline - 044-65515742 - run by Indian Community Welfare Organisation is manned by lesbian volunteers.

For 24-year-old boxing coach Aksam, who volunteers for the helpline, it is more difficult to deal with the male callers than understanding her attraction to women. She says male callers to get contact numbers of lesbians while some of them call out of curiosity to know about lesbianism and the relationship between lesbians.

"Some men call up and say they have a sister or wife or a relative who is attracted to women. Finally, they ask for contact numbers of lesbians. When we ask them to pass the phone to the woman, they refuse. A few men ask questions like how women are attracted to other women and how it is to be in a relationship," said Aksam.

But a few years ago, Aksam had the same curiosity when she looked at other girls in the school, while her girlfriends were attracted to boys. Feeling scared to discuss about it to others, she typed the words 'girl attracted to girl' and found through the Internet that she was not alone and there were girls like her. A few years later, she found support from ICWO.

However, not many are able to understand themselves or find a support as conveniently as her. Uma Priyadarshini (20), who eloped with her girlfriend from Virudhunagar and sought the help of the NGO, has counseled many women who were forced to marry, but want to find a way out of it because they were not attracted to men. "There have been calls where women reveal suicidal thoughts because they were forced into marriage. College students too call us saying they are feeling too possessive about their girlfriends and would want to know if it is normal. Many women don't like to reveal their identity. Of course, many calls are from men, who ask if they can join us in manning the helpline," she said.

ICWO secretary A J Hariharan said the NGO launched the helpline in 2009 as a reaction to the suicide ofa lesbian couple in north Chennai.

Since the launch, they have received calls from across the state and also from South Indians settled in London, Australia and Singapore. At present the helpline functions only during weekends when it receives about 25 calls a day.

Psychiatrist Dr Vasantha Jeyaraman, who works with Global Hospital, said that being curious and wanting to know about something that has not been in the public view is not abnormal for a human being.

"Some men would get pleasure out of making such calls or few would want to try their luck while some heterosexuals would want to ridicule the women. It could be anything but only irresponsible men would make such calls," the doctor said.

