DEHRADUN: Quoting Rabindranath Tagore’s lines, “Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls,” Rudrani Chettri Chauhan, an English honours graduate from Delhi University speaks with élan about her recently-fulfilled dream of setting up India’s first transgender modelling agency.

“Being a transgender myself, I always questioned why there should be limitations to our dreams. The idea of a modelling agency has been appreciated very much, particularly by people from the community,” she said, talking to TOI.

Chauhan, a transgender activist and head of Delhi-based NGO Mitr Trust, has been working in close coordination with transgenders along with other people from the LGBTQI community for over a decade, spreading awareness and also fighting for their rights.

“In 2015, two UK citizens in India to make a documentary saw my photos and suggested I could take up modelling. Many transgenders would love to do that. I approached modelling agencies but they were not open to the idea,” Chauhan said. “That was when I thought of opening an agency myself, exclusively for transgender models,” she added. “Do transgenders not have the right to flaunt their beauty?”

With the help of crowdfunding from supporters and with a team of leading fashion photographers like Rishi Raj, Chauhan conducted an audition in the first week of February in Delhi. Three models have been shortlisted and will be groomed further, before making their portfolios for sharing with other agencies.

Chauhan has extensive plans for the future. “Uttarakhand will be one of the first places we will expand to, besides UP, which has the highest transgender population in the country,” she said.

Uttarakhand has 4,555 transgenders as per official records. “There are more transgenders in the state than what the census suggests as many do not openly declare it or register themselves as third gender. We are all very excited about the modelling agency and I personally will apply for it when it starts here,” said Anjum Shabina (name changed) from Dehradun’s Chukkhu Mohalla.

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