Manabi Bandyopadhyay (born 1964/1965) is the first openly

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

Indian college principal.

Career

Bandyopadhyay served as an associate professor of

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

and philosophy at Vivekananda Satobarshiki Mahavidyalaya. She became the Principal of Krishnagar Women's College on 7 June 2015 after a decade of struggling against patriarchy and convoluted notions regarding the

third gender Third gender or third sex is an identity recognizing individuals categorized, either by themselves or by society, as neither a man nor a woman. Many gender systems around the world include three or more genders, deriving the concept either from ...

. Unlike men who would have applied for the same post, and women, who would have been appointed earlier, she had to garner support by projecting her career spanning over 16 years as a teacher, made possible by the intervention of the Chief Minister of West Bengal,

Mamata Banerjee Mamata Banerjee (; born 5 January 1955) is an Indian politician who is serving as the eighth and current List of chief ministers of West Bengal, chief minister of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal since 2 ...

Writing

She has written several books in the

literature, and a

biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curri ...

, ''A Gift of Goddess Lakshmi'', which was co-authored by Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey. She runs India's first transgender magazine, ''Abomanob'' which is now an annual magazine which runs for more than 26 years.

Personal life

She has an adopted son named Debashish. She underwent

gender-affirming surgery Gender-affirming surgery (GAS) is a surgical procedure, or series of procedures, that alters a person's physical appearance and sexual characteristics to resemble those associated with their gender identity. The phrase is most often associated ...

in 2003. In 2013 she was a contestant on Bigg Boss Bangla. In 2019 Bandyopadhyay played a role in her debut film '' Purba Paschim Dakshin'' directed by Rajorshi Dey. She has also acted in Film Called "Nagar kirton " Directed by Koushik Ganguly.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bandyopadhyay, Manabi Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Indian women writers 21st-century Indian writers Indian transgender women People from West Bengal Transgender academics Transgender women writers Indian transgender writers