Know your AIQA- Shubham Jha
-By Shubham Jha
Shubham Jha, 19,Engineering Student, HIV and Queer ActivistFounder – Roshni – एक आगाज़Writer and Illustrator, AIQA•••
As a child born in orthodox savarna brahmin family and society, I always used to see everyday castism and cis-normative dominance in my surroundings (i am not generalizing though). I used to feel annoyed and at times even used to cry but couldn’t explain anyone what I felt like. I used to get triggered from everyday patriarchal acts even back then when I didn’t know what patriarchy is. No sooner, I found the burning flame of feminism and activism inside me. Within all my journey in Activism, I grew from an introvert guy to someone who was shouting on the streets asking for equal rights and dignity.
I am not from a metropolitan city and had my teenage life in a very small orthodox town, closeted and silent. It was my 16 when I came to Nagpur and started Roshni Foundation, which provided free tuition to the children who couldn’t afford private tutors and they are now in Delhi and Mumbai University. Developing contacts, I met very interesting people and life leaned me to the left side of the political spectrum. My circumstances, conditions, and family never supported me to work for social justice but I never backed-off because I knew I had to work for it. In course of time, I started feeling the amazing Power of Activism inside me.
I joined AIQA because I wanted to work for my community, the queer community. Belonging to the marginalized community, I have faced a lot in my life inside and out and I don’t want anyone anywhere to go through it because of toxic hetro-biased cis-norms. AIQA is a political democratic organization and we at AIQA believes in the annihilation of the toxic norms in the society which cause an adverse effect to any marginalized community such as farmers, laborers, queers, Dalits etc.
Yes, to all my ‘under the rainbow’ people out there, I love u so much. Let’s get together to make this society a better place to live in.
Satrangi Salaam
