By Matters India Reporter

Patna, July 9, 2019: A talk on the ““Welfare of the Marginalized and the Oppressed” organized by a Jesuit college in Patna heard passionate pleas to fight for the rights of the LGBTQ community.

Reshma Prasad, an activist of the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, ally, pansexual) community, was one of speakers of the July 9 program at St. Xavier’s College of Management and Technology in the capital city of Bihar.

A transgender herself, she highlighted the plight of the LGBTQ community and portrayed the discrimination and scorn that they face beginning right from their childhood.

She appealed to the students to create a supportive and caring environment in the college for the LGBTQ among them. She invited the students to the LGBTQ Pride March being organized on July 14 in Patna and become part of a Guinness World Record of marching with the longest transgender flag in the world.

Another speaker, Akansha John, a youth parliamentarian and a student of Delhi University, urged the students to become the voices of the oppressed and start a revolution to rebuild the damaged fabric of the Indian society.

John runs an NGO that looks after the welfare of women and LGBTQ community. She asked the students of the college to join her in starting a new initiative to help the aged.

The talk show was followed by a ‘Nukkad Natak’ (street drama) performed by the Xavier Theatre Club. Titled, “Ham Paryavaran ke Deewane” (we are lovers of environment), the play focused on water conservation, car-pooling, and animal welfare.

As a follow up to the plea to save the environment, the guests planted six trees in the college campus.

The guests included Fathers Fr Joy Karyampuram, superior of the Jesuit Community of New Delhi-based Indian Social Institute, Tony Pendanath, director of Patna’s Taru Mitra (friends of trees), Raj Kumar, administrator of the college, and Manoj Kumar, Sub-inspector of Digha Thana.

Also present were rector of the college, Father Joseph Thadavanal, and principal Father T. Nishaant, both Jesuits.