Born as Kumareshan T S, Parvathy says she knew she identified as a woman from a young age.
“I’d never miss a chance to dress up like a girl during fancy dress competitions or dance events,” she recalls.
“Almost everyone made fun of me. This continued even through my college days. This made me run away from my hometown.”
Because her family could not accept her identity, she was forced to leave her home and abandon her college studies.
Parvathy says that even though she was bullied and harassed, she continued to dress up as a woman.
She started working at a petrol pump to earn a living, while preparing for central and state-level job tests.
Her efforts finally paid off when she got a job as a postwoman at Rosemala in Kerala’s Kollam district in 2012.
Since all her documents were under her previous name, her seniors forced and harassed her to dress up as a man.
Despite that, she kept adorning her favourite sarees, salwars and suits to work.
While she had a job, her fight for her identity continued as she was still a “postman” on paper.
On 9 November 2022, Parvathy received an order from the postal department identifying her as a trans woman.
Every day,she travels 34 km on her black Honda Activa to reach the post office from her village and collects mail from the Rajakappu area to Rosemala.
Additionally, she also is an LGBTQ+ rights activist and helps people to get their gender registered in government and private documents.
“There are more than 400 trans people in my district alone. But not many have official documents that note them as one. The right to identity is part of our basic freedom and it is sad that we need to fight hard to achieve it.”