Karnal, Feb. 6 -- Shattering conventional norms, 45-year-old transgender Aditi Sharma has been running a primary school near Hansi road in Karnal since 2015. When she is not bending over backwards to get society to accept her, she dotes on her three-year-old adopted daughter.

"The society judges us with disdain for our gender," she says. "Our community faces unimaginable obstacles and stereotyping. There are several transgenders who have set a record in their respective fields in different parts of the country, but in North India, when someone asks what a transgender does for a living, they will reply that they either go door-to-door to seek 'badhaai' or are sex workers," she rues.

"I aim to change this and be called a professional," Sh...