Kolkata to worship its first transgender durga idol this puja

KOLKATA: In a bid to be innovative, every year puja committees across Bengal add a new dimension to the list of first’s--be it the tallest idol or the greenest idol, but never has anyone done what The Uddyami Yuvak Brinda is putting up--a transgender godess--androgynous form of Shiva and Parvati.

The north Kolkata club has been organising durga puja for close to three decades now but this time they raised the bars by coming up with a concept never conceived by any committee.

The Uddyami Yuvak Brinda will give shape to this novel idea in association with Kolkata based The Pratyay Gender Trust, a sexual rights initiative. Not just the idol, the puja committee too will actively involve members of the transgender community in the puja events.

Bhanu Naskar, an artisan from Kumartuli, also from the community, conceptualised the idol that is made in sync with Ardhanarishvara, a composite androgynous form of the Shiva and Parvati. One half of the idol is that of Shiva while the other is of Durga.

“After receiving a lot of objections from the local community we could finally explain what we were trying to convey through this concept-which is the message of equality, be it between men and women or rich and poor,” said a member of the Pratyay Gender Trust.