KATHMANDU: Nepal’s oldest modern school that ushered in a revolution in education in the 20th century is now poised to bring in more sweeping social changes with the acceptance of a 13-year-old student, who was thrown out of a village school for being a transgender.
opened in 1892 when the then all-powerful Rana prime minister Jung Bahadur Rana decided to break away from traditional Sanskrit schooling for his children and give them an English education. In the beginning, only for wards of the blue-blooded , the school opened to the general public in 1902.
On Thursday, when celebrates Guru Purnima – Teachers’ Day – 13-year-old Hem Baral (the name has been changed to protect the identity of the minor) will take admission in the seventh grade of the school after being forced to drop out of school in his own home district Bajura due to the incessant bullying of his classmates.
Baral was born Hema, the fourth daughter in a brood of four to a primary school teacher in Bajura. Disappointed at not having a son and heir, the teacher took a second wife. Though bigamy is illegal in Nepal now, the practice flourishes both in the capital as well as villages with the government turning a blind eye to it. Ironically, while the second wife too bore her husband three daughters, Baral began to develop signs of being a transgender.
Categories: Human Rights