Mridu Markan

A strong advocator of intersectionality and operating under multidisciplinary lens, Mridu Markan completed a B.A (Hons) in Psychology and received a M.A degree in social work from India. Following her masters studies, she joined the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India to work towards prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS epidemic focusing on high risk groups like female sex workers, men who have sex with men and transgenders/Hijras (Hijras are biological males who reject their ‘masculine’ identity in due course of time to identify either as women, or “not-men”, or “in-between man and woman”, or “neither man nor woman”)  Recently, as a Fulbright scholar to USA, Mridu attained her second master’s degree in Gender and Women Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison. This summer, she will use her SKJ fellowship in India to develop her dissertation research. The issues of violence faced by the Hijra community can be from within the community and that faced from outside the community. Drawing attention to this grave situation, she plans to conduct preliminary research to investigate the lifecycle of violence against Hijras in India as a public health problem.