New Delhi (Sputnik) — Shanavi Ponnusamy, an Indian transgender woman who claims to have been denied a job by the country's national carrier Air India due to her non-binary sexuality, has sought the President's permission to end her life. The news has triggered a huge controversy, with the All-India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) blaming the government for her frustration.
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The organization has described Air India's treatment of the transgender woman as "discriminatory and inhuman" and has called on them to reconsideration the decision.
"Here you have a bright young girl looking forward to live her life with dignity and you are denying her basic rights, forcing her to think of ending the life," AIDWA General Secretary Annie Raja told Sputnik.
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Shanavi told the Indian news agency ANI that she was told by the airlines last August that she was being rejected because of her gender. On Tuesday, she approached the President of India Ram Nath Kovind seeking mercy killing, according to local reports.
Shanavi reportedly hails from a poor family in Tiruchendur in the Thoothukkudi district of Tamil Nadu. She graduated as an electronics and communication engineer in 2010. She underwent gender reorientation surgery in 2014 when she was 25 years old.