When Nuns Tried to Kick-Start India's First Transgender School
On a sunlit day in mid-December, humid and ripe as South India winters tend to be, six Carmelite nuns invited the transgender activist Vijayaraja Mallika over for tea. They sat inside the Provincial House of the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel (CMC) to discuss Mallika’s new venture: a school for transgender people in the state of Kerala. The sisters knew Mallika was still looking for a building to house the school she had named Sahaj, which means “natural” in Hindi. They asked if Mallika wanted to see what they were willing to offer her.
Splitting themselves between an auto-rickshaw and a public bus, the sisters and the activist rode past palm trees, tech offices, and paddy fields to the spot they had in mind: an unused building that the CMC convent had once intended to turn into a dormitory.
Mallika looked at the size of the structure, the roomy kitchen and sunny terrace. She was so overwhelmed that she burst into tears. The building was not only a concrete way to get her school started, it was also indicative of an entirely new support system. The Carmelites, she realized, could become unlikely allies for
