CHENNAI: A 20-year-old trans woman, the only one to register for a board exam in Tamil Nadu, had cleared the class 12 exam this year.
Nivetha has secured 283/600 in Chennai and has written the NEET exam recently.
As she was studying class 10 in Selaiyur near Tambaram was forced to move out of the family, who opposed her being trans.
Due to which, she had to move to Triplicane and sought support from the trans community.
Nivetha studied in Lady Willingdon Government model girls higher secondary school, Triplicane.
As per her teachers, she was well-loved, well-behaved and intelligent who was elected as the school pupil leader by students of classes 6 to 12.
Speaking to DT NEXT, HM R Hema Priya said, "Nivetha, despite several social taboos and constraints within the trans community and otherwise, went on to show brilliant performance through her education at the school. We managed to keep her comfortable and barely let her identity affect her or others within the school premises."
Though the HM said a few parents initially hesitated to enroll their children at the school, knowing about Nivetha, notions quickly changed due to her personality.
"As Nivetha was staying with other trans persons in a crowded room, she was sometimes unable to study. Yet, restoring to timely guidance from teachers, she managed to secure this mark, "added the HM.
Nivetha, however, went on to show gratitude to the elders of the trans community Shambavi and Anushri who were the ones who enrolled her in school.
"I expressed my desire to study to the elders in the community. Acknowledging it, they ensured I joined school and completed studies," said Nivetha.