Nivedita Basu, VP Content and Business Alliance, Atrangii TV and OTT says that while India, as a country has become more aware of the LGBTQIA+ community, we still have a long way to go. She says that movies and web series on the subject have really helped.
“Acceptance has increased but there is still a lot of resistance, and I am talking about highly educated people who are still homophobic but yes, definitely from the time we were born and we started in college to now, there is a huge amount of acceptance. The media has played a very important role in the acceptance of this, especially with these movies. We might have taken them as humour, we might have taken a point home, but definitely, media is a big reason why the audiences have started accepting and knowing about gay rights,” she says.
She says that we still need to take huge strides to understand the rights of the people of this community. “I think it’s easier said than done when we say our conservative society should consider and accept more LGBTQIA+. Yes, there is a global shift and India is more accepting, but the fact is that there is such a huge baggage and it doesn’t only limits itself to LGBTQIA+, there are so many other things in which India is backwards. It will take its time but when it comes to rights, people should be given them. We are not curb to do marriage, moving on, having a partner or a child and I think that is where we need to be more liberal and non-interfering. If they want to have a normal life then why not give them normalcy,” she says.
She adds, “I have been following the whole case of LGBTQIA+ marriages and adoption of kids. It is very sad that we are so busy in our own lives that we don’t even have time to reach out to our friends who are going through such turmoil. They think of committing suicide, going through this stress is challenging especially when some of them have had worst financial periods. But when it comes to these things, they have to make a point and suddenly hold up flags and say no they should not do this or that. Who are we to moral police anyone? It doesn’t interfere with your life, it makes someone else’s life happier so why not. I definitely think it will start from the youth. India is a very young country and if the youth starts doing it, we will see a huge change towards the elderly. As time passes, I won’t be surprised if after 10 years there will be a huge mass of population who will accept and not resist like today’s times.”
