Shivin Ganesan

Some Lesser Known Facts About Shivin Ganesan

• Shivin Ganesan is an Indian transgender model. In 2022, she came into the limelight after appearing as a participant in Star Vijay’s reality show Big Boss Tamil Season 6.

  

• She was born in a Tamil family in Devakottai near Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu.

• Shivin Ganesan was born as a male; however, since her childhood, she was suffering from gender dysphoria; a biological term for a deep sense of unease and distress that may occur when your biological sex does not match your gender.

  

• According to Shivin, she was the only boy in her family.

• Shivin, during one of the Big Boss episodes, talked about her gender identity and said that soon after she revealed her gender orientation in front of her parents, they put various limitations on her, and she was not allowed to leave the house.

• Later, owing to her gender identity, her parents decided to shift her to Singapore. In an interview, she talked about this and said,
  

  My mother sent me to Singapore as she could not live in India. Why did so many people leave India and come to Singapore because of sex donation.”

• After moving to Singapore, she started working in an IT company; however, after a few years, she decided to return to India.

• Soon after returning to India, she started working as a customer service representative at HCL technologies, Chennai.

• In 2021, Shivin started her career in modelling. The same year, she won the Miss Trans Star India pageant.

  

• In 2022, she was going to represent India in Miss Trans Star International 2022 which was held in Spain; however, Shivin’s visa got declined, following which Shivin couldn’t visit Spain to participate in the pageant.

• Shivin is a volunteer teacher at Teach For Change, a non-governmental organization that works for children from marginalised communities studying in government schools.

• During one of the Big Boss Tamil Season 6 episodes, Shivin talked about her previous relationships and revealed that she had a two-year-long relationship with a boy while she was working in an IT company in Chennai; however, her mother forced her to break up with him. She said,”
  

  In my native place, we used to go to temples and temple festivals together. Everyone in my village knew about our relationship, and they adored it. But my mother never approved of it. She forced me to break up with him and said that the boy’s parents may curse me for being in a relationship with him because I am a transwoman.Since my mother forced me to break up with him, I eventually did so. Now, he has settled down in Singapore but I’ve heard from friends that he has developed some addictions. All I want for him is to stop them and find himself a good partner.” ^[4]The Times of India

• According to Shivin, her parents once locked her in a room and physically abused her. In an interview, she talked about this and said,
  

  I was locked in a room, and my family never let me out of the room; they served food through a small gap in the door. I was not allowed to even meet anyone in my own house, and they hit me on several occasions.”