Srinagar 25th Jan:RJ Rafiq wins the prestigious Award at India Audio Summit and award held in Mumbai in best CSR Initiative for the documentary “The Struggle of third kind”. This Award is dedicated to Abdul Rashid, aka, Reshma, the main storyteller for this documentary, who passed away on in November 2022. The documentary sheds light on the transgender community of Kashmir , it reflects on their plights and struggles. The gender is a cornerstone of a person’s identity. While people are fighting for the equal rights of the two genders, the third gender still has no access to provide access to gender recognition in a manner consistent with the rights to freedom from discrimination, equal protection of the law, privacy, identity and freedom of expression. Denying someone the legal recognition of their gender negatively impacts all aspects of their life: their right to health, to housing, to access social security, to freedom of movement and residence; and it also fuels discrimination, violence and exclusion in social settings, including educational and work environments. This leads to the third gender opting for the professions that ‘society’ doesn’t deem fit. In other parts of India, the third gender predominantly works as sex workers, but in the Valley of Saints, the Paradise on Earth, Kashmir, the cultural ethos doesn’t allow the conscience of the third Gender to work on such terms. They still stick to the culturally accepted jobs like singing on weddings, working as match-makers, etc. While they also want to live a normal life like other two genders, they get marginalised and are stuck to these jobs for life. Ref FM J&K took an initiative in the form of a short documentary to show the plight of the transgender community in Kashmir. This documentary provides an insight into the difficulties and social abuse that this community has to deal with. Despite all of these obstacles, many have risen to the occasion and have inspired society in a variety of ways. As a society, we must all work together to support and respect this community and its members. The Indian Television Dot Com Group organised the event to honor and reward the finest practices in the realm of audio. With entries across india ranging from podcasters , social media content creators, Radio stations the finest were nominated according to there related categories showcasing the prowess of the audio medium in India The event was held in Andheri West, Mumbai
