Background
Agniva Lahiri was born in 1979, biologically a male, to a government servant and an economics school teacher, as the youngest of their three children, in Kolkata, India.
Agniva Lahiri was born in 1979, biologically a male, to a government servant and an economics school teacher, as the youngest of their three children, in Kolkata, India.
Lahiri founded, a Non Governmental Organization, in 2001 and is serving as its Executive Director. Lahiri is also associated with Network of Asia Pacific Youth as a coordinator for Coordinator for Policy Research and International Advocacy. Subsequently, Lahiri took master"s degree in Bengali literature form University of Calcutta and another master"s degree in sociology from Nagarjuna University, Kolkata and is pursuing higher studies at University of Melbourne.
The realization that feminine emotions ruled within a biologically male body came to Lahiri at a very early age.
This drew a lot of criticism from Lahiri"s teachers and fellow students. But the discriminatory treatments did not stop Lahiri from making the decision to accept oneself as the other gender.
Agniva Lahiri"s social career started with joining a forum called Pratyay, a division of Praajak, a gay support forum started in 1992 on Kolkata. Lahiri also started a newsletter called Pratyay Arshi Nagar, with contributions even from the college faculty.
The newsletter later grew to be a newspaper by name, Manashi.
Lahiri"s social activism was kickstarted by an incident on 7 December 2003, with the assault by a group of people. Lahiri filed a complaint with the local police who declined to register a formal case against the perpetrators. Lahiri and colleagues persisted and were successful in getting a First Information Report filed.
Lahiri has been involved with the Network of Asia Pacific Youth as a coordinator in the research on sexual culture and its relevance in the area of Human Immunodeficiency Virus intervention and prevention program
Lahiri"s past associations are with United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund ROSA in 2002 on Child welfare, with Gender and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Training Institute (GATI). and with United Nations Population Fund as a young researcher Lahiri is presently the Executive Director of which runs a destitute home in Kolkata called Prothoma, offering shelter for the victims of human trafficking and unsafe migration and standing up against the violence meted out to them.
The activities have attracted public attention and Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (United Nations Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Program) released a small grant of ₹ 400,000 with which Lahiri organised a forum for transgender people named the Indian Network of Male Sex Workers. The forum now has 22 branches in 14 states of India.
Agniva Lahiri started the establishment of an organization for transgender people and gender-variant men in 2000 and informally started the organization in 2001.
The organization was registered as an non-governmental organization in March 2003. The organization is working as a social forum for the rights of gender variant men and is involved in the Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome related activities such as:
prevention
counselling, training and rehabilitation
research
intervention in issues like human trafficking.