Manisha, a trans woman in Pakhanjur, Chhattisgarh, India, has adopted eight children – seven girls, one boy. Despite struggling to make ends meet, Manisha is determined to provide them with the loving home she herself didn't have as a child.
From Pink News:
"I can understand the pain of not being loved and cared for. So, whenever I come across an orphan, I take that child home with me," she told Gaon Connection.
Manish was the target of much discrimination and bullying as a child. Even her parents would lock her indoors as to not "malign" their honor. When Manisha was five years old, her parents abandoned her. She was taken in by another trans woman, and now shares her motherly love with her children.
"My mother and father abandoned me at a very young age," she said. "I had a tough childhood and I spent many days without food. I vowed to myself that when I grew up, I would take care of other children who did not have a family."
"I never had my mother's love, or my father's. I don't remember getting any affection from them," she told Brut.
"There are kids like this abandoned, kicked out of their homes. Some talk about killing their child. The way I have been hurt, if I see an orphan or a child that has been abandoned, I will be a mother for them and raise them."
Manisha earns a living by singing and dancing at weddings and births, a traditional occupation for trans people in Indian culture. Her ultimate goal is to open an orphanage of her own and offer love, care, and safety to children who would otherwise be abandoned.
