Shubha Chacko (born 26 August 1965) is an Indian feminist and gender-rights activist. [1] [2] She is the founder of Solidarity Foundation, a Bangalore-based not-for-profit organisation. She is also one of the founding board members of Sangama, a gender and sexual minority rights NGO in Bangalore along with Manohar Elavarthi.
Shubha Chacko has her roots in Kerala but is born and resides in Bangalore. She did her schooling at St. Francis Xavier's Girls High School, Frazer Town, Bangalore. Later, she studied at Mount Carmel College, Bangalore, and did her master's degree in Social Work at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. [3]
Chacko is one of the few feminist activists who is active fighting for the rights of gender and sexual minorities, and sex workers in India. [4] [5] She headed many NGOs, including Sangama, Aneka [6] and Solidarity Foundation and supported in nurturing and developing sexual minority and sex worker community based organisations and collectives for over 25 years. [7] [8] From 2013, she is the executive director of Solidarity Foundation. [9] [10] She is a researcher interested in macro economics, NGO management, social justice issues including gender and sexual minorities and has published articles in peer-reviewed journals. [11] [12] [13] She has been an invited as a speaker at many international conferences and published many reports. [14] [15] She has been instrumental in bringing jogappas into the mainstream and has supported a musical event with renowned T. M. Krishna. [16] To support LGBTQIA+ community, she came up with the idea of Pride Cafe and Solidarity Foundation partnered with Amadeus and launched the cafe in Bangalore. [17]
She received the Times Ascent Award as global diversity leader at the World HRD Congress, Mumbai 2017. [18]
Sex-positive feminism, also known as pro-sex feminism, sex-radical feminism, or sexually liberal feminism, is a feminist movement centering on the idea that sexual freedom is an essential component of women's freedom. They oppose legal or social efforts to control sexual activities between consenting adults, whether they are initiated by the government, other feminists, opponents of feminism, or any other institution. They embrace sexual minority groups, endorsing the value of coalition-building with marginalized groups. Sex-positive feminism is connected with the sex-positive movement. Sex-positive feminism brings together anti-censorship activists, LGBT activists, feminist scholars, producers of pornography and erotica, among others. Sex-positive feminists believe that prostitution can be a positive experience if workers are treated with respect, and agree that sex work should not be criminalized.
Prostitution is legal in India, but a number of related activities including soliciting, kerb crawling, owning or managing a brothel, prostitution in a hotel, child prostitution, pimping and pandering are illegal. There are, however, many brothels illegally operating in Indian cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Pune, and Nagpur, among others. UNAIDS estimate there were 657,829 prostitutes in the country as of 2016. Other unofficial estimates have calculated India has roughly 3 million prostitutes. India is widely regarded as having one of the world's largest commercial sex industry. It has emerged as a global hub of sex tourism, attracting sex tourists from wealthy countries. The sex industry in India is a multi-billion dollar one, and one of the fastest growing.
India has a long and ancient tradition of culture associated with the LGBTQ community, with many aspects that differ markedly from modern liberal western culture.
This is a timeline of notable events in the history of non-heterosexual conforming people of South Asian ancestry, who may identify as LGBTIQGNC, men who have sex with men, or related culturally-specific identities such as Hijra, Aravani, Thirunangaigal, Khwajasara, Kothi, Thirunambigal, Jogappa, Jogatha, or Shiva Shakti. The recorded history traces back at least two millennia.
Chennai has LGBTQIA cultures that are diverse concerning- socio-economic class, gender, and degree of visibility and politicisation. They have historically existed in the margins and surfaced primarily in contexts such as transgender activism and HIV prevention initiatives for men having sex with men (MSM) and trans women (TG).
Bangalore is a multicultural city and has experienced a dramatic social and cultural change with the advent of the liberalization and expansion of the information technology and business process outsourcing industries in India. With much expatriate population in the city, Bangalore is slightly more relaxed.
Good As You is a support and social group for LGBTQ people and others questioning their gender and sexuality in Bangalore. It started in 1994 and is one of the longest surviving groups that advocates equal rights for homosexuals and other gender and sexual minorities in Bangalore.
The Bangalore Queer Film Festival is an annual LGBT event that has been held in Bangalore, India since the year 2008. The event carefully selects queer films from all over the world and brings them to an ever-growing Bangalore audience.
A Revathi is a Bangalore-based writer and activist working for LGBT rights in India. She is a trans woman and member of the Hijra community.
Homonationalism is the favorable association between a nationalist ideology and LGBT people or their rights.
Sangama is an LGBT rights group based in Bangalore, India. When it began in 1999, Sangama acted as a documentation center but it has since grown to become an LGBT rights and HIV prevention NGO that mobilizes against sexual harassment and discrimination and conducts HIV prevention seminars and programmes. The organization works with non-English speaking, working class sex workers and LGBT people and people living with HIV (PLHIV) in Karnataka and Kerala.
In 2015, Nepal introduced constitutional recognition for "gender and sexual minorities". Despite this, the rights situation of intersex people in Nepal is unclear. Local activists have identified human rights violations, including significant gaps in protection of rights to physical integrity and bodily autonomy, and protection from discrimination. A first national meeting of intersex people look place in early 2016,Organised by First openly Intersex Rights Activist Esan Regmi in Nepal. with support from the UNDP.
Tamil sexual minorities are Tamil people who do not conform to heterosexual gender norms. They may identify as LGBTQIA. It has been estimated that India has a population of 2.5 million homosexuals, though not all of them are Tamil, and not all Tamils live in India.
The following list is a partially completed compilation of events considered to have a profound effect on the welfare or image of Tamil sexual minorities. The use of bold typeface indicates that the event is widely considered to be landmark:
Akkai Padmashali is an Indian transgender activist, motivational speaker, and singer. For her work in activism, she has received the Rajyotsava Prashasti, the second highest civilian honor of the state of Karnataka, and an honorary doctorate from the Indian Virtual University for Peace and Education. She is also the first transgender person in Karnataka to register their marriage.
Sexual minorities in Sri Lanka have been counted in recent times as consisting of as little as 0.035% of the population to as high as 19.6%. It is likely that there are around 1,100,000 according to current mapping conventions.
The third gendered in Sri Lanka is not as openly discussed as in other parts of South Asia. Though a strong tradition of transgender people exists in Sri Lanka, and even though these people have been allowed to convert for a long period, third gendered people have mostly avoided mainstream discussion on the island. Several reports state that the concept of a third gender is not found on the island, but binary concepts are found that are similar to the third gender.
Manohar Elavarthi is a human rights activist who has been working for LGBTQ+ rights for over two decades. He is the founder of Sangama, a sexual minorities and sex workers' rights organisation. He also founded or headed rights-based NGOs like Aneka, Suraksha, Solidarity Foundation and Sanchaya Nele.
Farah Naqvi is an Indian feminist, writer, educator, consultant, and activist known for her significant contributions to justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Her work primarily addresses the equity and inclusion of marginalized groups within public policies, education, development, gender justice, and efforts to combat violence against women. In 2010, Naqvi was appointed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the National Advisory Council (NAC), which was chaired by Sonia Gandhi. She also co-founded Nirantar, a women's rights organization that promotes a gender and women's rights perspective in education. For her extensive work, Naqvi was honored with the Human Rights Award by the Delhi Minorities Commission in 2019.
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