Manabi Bandopadhyay became the first transgender principal of Krishnagar Women’s College in Nadia district, West Bengal.
She will join her new job from 9 June 2015. Currently, she is working as an associate professor in Bengali at the Vivekananda Satobarshiki Mahavidyalaya.
She did her Master of Arts (MA) in Bengali and joined the Vivekananda Centenary College in Jhargram sub-division as a lecturer in the late 1990s.
In 1995, she published the country’s first transgender magazine, Ob-Manab (sub-human). The magazine, despite a very low circulation, continues to be published.
In April 2015, Supreme Court (SC) declared the transgender community as a legal third gender, granting them minority rights and privileges to education, employment and health benefits.
The court directed the government to provide transgender people with quotas in jobs and education in line with other minorities. India is estimated to have about two million transgender people.