TIRUCHY: S Rihana Banu (19) is a few months shy from living her dream of joining the police department. Undergoing training at the Police Recruits School (PRS) in Navalpattu, the resident of Beema Nagar is also set to become the first transperson cop from the district. And at a time when stories of such people being abandoned when they reveal their identity are all too common, Rihana proudly mentions her family to be her biggest support.
Born as Jailabdeen, it wasn’t all too easy for Rihana when she completely came to terms with her identity when in Class 12. “Rihana started behaving differently after Class 11 and I started noticing it. Till that time, I didn’t notice anything. It took a lot of time for me to accept what my son was feeling. We tried to change her, but she was sure that she identified herself as a woman,” says her mother Saitha Ni. “My mother has five siblings and they all stood by me. They convinced my parents that what I was going through was normal,” says Rihana.
While what followed was six months of struggle for Rihana, her family finally accepted her new identity, and even got her name changed legally. But the teenager wanting to go to school as a girl was met with opposition, making her to lose a year in education.
Although Rihana always nurtured the dream of becoming a police official as “they wield a lot of power” and “have the power to question politicians, too”, she says, “I initially wanted to study a lot, and get three to four degrees. Due to the issues and financial problems, I decided to apply for police department after Class 12 itself.” I am also planning to simultaneously pursue a degree through correspondence, she adds.
With her father, who is a driver, finding it difficult to have steady income during the pandemic, Rihana hopes to provide for her family once she completes constabulary training. Saitha points out that it was a police official, Sundar, who helped Rihana pursue her dream. As they didn’t have money to buy study material, he bought them for Rihana, she adds.