The Koovagam Festival, the annual gathering of eunuchs near Villupuram in Tamil Nadu, attracted nationwide attention. Miss Koovagam, a beauty contest reserved for its Indian eunuchs. The village of Koovagam is considered the mecca of the class: every year 50 thousand geldings go there for the holidays.
More than 2000 transgenders participated in the Miss Koovagam 2009 competition. Selection was on the basis of their personality, HIV/AIDS knowledge, social concern and their services delivered to their community. The three winners were given the title of Miss Koovagam, second and third respectively with a cash prize of Rs 4000,Rs 3000 and Rs 2000.
Two transgenders from Chennai, Priya and Lalitha stood second and third in the Miss Koovagam 2009 contest held at Villupuram on Tuesday. Rekha from Madurai came first in the beauty contest organised by ARM, a non-profitable, non-governmental organization working for the past 13 years in the field of STI/HIV/AIDS along with APAC,VHS-USAID. The idea behind the competition was to imbibe self esteem in transgenders and to encourage the community to create a platform to express their knowledge ,skills and talents in arts and culture.
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