38-Year-Old Transgender Woman Became India's First Transgender Civil Servant

Aishwarya Rituparna Pradhan, a 38-year-old transgender woman, is India's first transgender civil servant, working as a commercial tax officer in the Odisha Financial Services Department (OFS). Ratikanta Pradhan was her name when she joined the OFS. Pradhan changed her gender identity after the Supreme Court's (SC) 2014 judgement, which recognised transgender people as a third gender.

Pradhan hails from Katibageri, a small village in the Kandhamal area of Odisha. In class six, she declared her gender orientation as female.

When she began training for state civil service, she was bullied in class and her abilities were questioned. She earned her bachelor's degree in mass communication and a master's degree in public administration from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication.

She remarked that her journey has now become relatively easier as it was before, after successfully becoming a federal worker and establishing her gender identity.

Meanwhile, Pradhan was assigned to the Paradip Port Township as a male officer in 2014. When the Supreme Court ruled against transgender people being recognised as a third gender, she opted to legally alter her gender from man to woman. She then completed the necessary documentation for gender reassignment and picked the name 'Aishwarya Rituparna Pradhan' for herself.