Every day after attending lectures in college, where she is pursuing BCom (Hons), 27-year-old transgender Durga heads to the streets to beg. For the last 12 years, begging has kept a roof over her head, and her stomach full. After saving enough money, the resident of Ongole, Andhra Pradesh, was at Sansad Marg in Delhi Sunday to protest against the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) bill, 2016.

“I ran away from home when I was in school. There was no acceptance in my family or society. I wanted to study but I also had to beg to earn a livelihood. Now, according to this bill, it proposes that enticement to beg be criminalised. This is how we earn as we have no other option, no one wants to give us a job,” said Durga.

She was one of the 150-plus people from across the country who gathered Sunday to protest the bill, after the central government’s decision to introduce the bill in the current winter session of Parliament. Read more via Indian Express